Orchestra Camerata Strumentale Coro Cooperativa Artisti Associati - Lodoletta - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The first performance of I Rantzau took place at the Pergola Theatre in Florence on 10th November 1892. It was a triumphal success right from the dress rehearsal; the ovations for the composer were so great that according to the reports of the time his wife Lina fainted with emotion. On the first evening, six pieces were encored. Born under such splending auspices, the opera continued it's career almost into the new century, but inexplicably, in it's complete version, it was no longer put forward for production. And we had to wait until the celebration of the centenary of the first performance for the first new production in modern times. What was the reason for it's disappearance? Whatever answers might be given, today I Rantzau has to be considered an important and delicate stage in Mascagni's creative work. Indeed, the opera marks the saturation of the so-called InchrealisticInch phase of the composer's work. It highlights the consolidation of the change from the idyllic naturalism tried out in the earlier Amico Fritz, to a true experimentalism which was to lead soon after that to the pessimistic tensions of the heavy Nordic romanticism of Guglielmo Ratcliff.

The three-act opera semiseria Adelson e Salvini by Vincenzo Bellini was based on the 1772 novel Epreuves du Sentiment by Francois-Thomas-Marie de Baculard d'Amaud, and draws on a previously performed French play of 1803 by Prospere Delamare. With libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, the opera was first written as Bellini's final project at the Naples San Sebastiano Conservatory. It was first performed in early 1825. This new features that original 1825 version, presented by a stunning lineup of soloists, the Orchestra Accademica del Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, Roma, and Ensemble vocale del Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, Roma.

In seventeenth-century church music, features of the Renaissance tradition (polyphony, modality) coexisted with elements of Baroque innovation (harmony, tonality) and merged into the concertato style. The Salmi Concertati op. II by Father Francesco Antonio Urio included in this Vespers dedicated to the Virgin, follow this transformation with full rights. The Vesprus, here in it's first modern performance ever, shows vocal pieces for three voices of rare melodic quality where the imitative style, the counterpoint, the modal harmony, the numerous tempo changes, the various melismata and a number of diminutions reveal remarkable compositional ability.