Various - Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacc - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

On the dark side of fame awaits the slide into obscurity. That's certainly true for a number of operas that, while popular and highly lucrative during their composers' lifetime, soon followed their creators into the shadowy realm of oblivion. Operas, for example, that only ever get mentioned in connection with some much more famous sibling. Giuseppe Gazzaniga's Don Giovanni - premiered half a year before Mozart's masterpiece - is such an example, as is Ruggero Leoncavallo's La Boheme and George Bizet's Djamileh, widely considered the predecessor of Carmen. Other operas just do not stand out among other works by a composer - Jules Massenet's operas for example are hardly a footnote of music history, his opera Therese, a thoroughly forgotten work, however, is. Two examples for works that are scarcely performed or even known outside of what is now the Czech Republic are also included in this collection of Opera Rarities on ORFEO Dvorak's last opera Armida and Zdenek Fibich's sarka. Album Tracks 1. Don Giovanni (O Sia Il Convitati Di Pietra) 2. Djamileh 3. Armida 4. Sarka 5. Thérèse 6. La Bohème

We have the concept of globalization associated with the 20th century, but without much exaggeration we can apply it to the Jesuit missions in South America in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Jesuits were aware of the power of music, which profoundly touches the human heart. The European music they brought across the ocean was in no time embraced by the indigenous peoples in Bolivia and Peru. And thus works by the Czech composer Josef Brentner, the Italian Jesuit Domenico Zipoli or the Swiss missionary Martin Schmid were soon performed in the settlements in the middle of the jungle and in the mountains. European music blended with the traditional local music, just as the Quechua language blended with Spanish. Through music and singing they praised God and prayed to the Virgin Mary, as we can hear in the Quechua procession hymn Hanaq pachap cussicuinin or Zipoli's Zuipaqui. However, similarly vivid instrumental music, songs and dances were enjoyed in Moravia, in the very heart of Europe. And again the globalization in music many a folk song and dance was imbued with elements of Inchhigh cultureInch, and vice versa, G. P. Telemann did not hide enthusiasm and direct inspiration from Silesian and Haná folk music in his work. And songs worshipping the Mother of God were sung in spectacular churches, village chapels and fields alike. Yet whether European music was performed in the jungle or Haná melodies in Hamburg, the common denominator was enthusiastic musicians who knew no greater delight than getting together and playing. Just like Collegium Marianum on this recording. Let us rejoice together! The unbridled joy of music. In Bolivia, Peru, Moravia. In the Baroque era and today alike.

Franco Gulli was one of the most prominent and active Italian violinists of the latter part of the twentieth century. He began his studies with his father (a pupil of Ševcík and Marák at the Prague Conservatory), then went to Arrigo Serato in Siena and later to Szigeti in Switzerland. His varied and significant career included leading the Orchestra of the Pomeriggi Musicali, Milan, for several years, after which he took up a similar post with Virtuosi di Roma. Gulli's activities included a considerable volume of teaching and he was well-respected in this rôle, giving masterclasses all over the world and sitting on the juries of several international competitions including those in Brussels, London, Genoa, Munich, New York, and Indianapolis. He was a member of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, the Accademia Cherubini, Florence, and the Reale Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, as well as holding a Professorship at Indiana University. The present features newly remastered live recordings surveying forty years of Gulli's career.