Doran - Lift the Bar - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

American star tenor Michael Fabiano presents a spectacular set of scenes taken from late Donizetti and middle Verdi operas, revealing the strong ties between these two composers. The album documents a paradigmatic shift in Italian opera, from the beautiful lines and crispness of belcanto to a richer, more dramatic musical universe. The historical line stretches from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Poliuto and Maria di Rohan to mature Verdi operas such as Rigoletto and Un ballo in maschera. In many cases, Fabiano has selected original, rarely-heard versions, including the thunderous 'Qual sangue sparsi' from the original St. Petersburg edition of La Forza del Destino. Together, these arias and scenes constitute a world full of heartfelt tenderness and fire-laden drama. After numerous successes on the opera stage, this is Michael Fabiano's debut album on PENTATONE. He is accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and London Voices, conducted by Enrique Mazzola.

The music of SOUND FOUNTAIN is a mixture of diverse influences from jazz, rock and ethnic to new classical music and free improvised music. Taking advantage of the sound possibilities of the standard formation of guitar, bass and drums, the three musicians explore surprising musical landscapes. They use a method that has interested them for a long time interpreting composed and improvised music as a unity. SOUND FOUNTAIN comes with a vast range of experiences from various musical situations - each of the three musicians could readily perform a solo concert. However, they play music in this trio that benefits their individual potential of interaction and surprise. The three personalities, who grew up in greatly different music environments, generate substantial magnetic attraction and together develop an unsuspected creative potential, which unloads in versatile musical information haunting melodies, catchy grooves, spherical moods and abstract musical textures, but the intensity comes from each individual and the trio is more than the sum of the three individuals. An energetic SOUND FOUNTAIN!

For Christy Doran and Stefan Banz, aerosols are an excellent metaphor for their intermedia collaboration between music and painting, in which they have explicitly sought to inspire and influence each other. Thus Banz has responded to five pieces of music composed for solo guitar and electronic devices by Doran with five new paintings in acrylic on cotton, and Doran in turn has responded to five paintings in acrylic on cotton by Banz with five new compositions for solo guitar and electronic devices. This publication contains the complete outcome of this fruitful collaboration, with additional texts by Stefan Banz and a link to a digital video animation of the total of ten music compositions and paintings