Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. This week audiences will hear new recordings of two famed works, one in the French repertoire and the other in the Italian repertoire. There will also be holiday recordings and some world-premiere pieces.
Changing Navona releases Choral Chameleon, under the direction of Vince Peterson’s new album. The album explores the concept of change as a fundamental aspect of our existence. The texts and poems in this release delve into change as something that is inevitable and cyclical.
VIVALDI EDITION No. 72: Musica sacra per coro e orchestra I Musica sacra per coro e orchestra I marks the 72nd volume in naïve’s Vivaldi Edition and the first to be recorded by Giulio Prandi and his Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri. The album features the “Dixit Dominus,” RV 807 and the “Magnificat,” RV 611, which bookend three rare motets: “Confitebor tibi, Domine” in C Major, RV 596; “Sanctorum meritis” in C major RV 620; and “Vos invito, barbarae faces” in F major, RV 811.
The album features soloists Carlotta Colombo, Margherita Maria Sala, Valerio Contaldo, Alessandro Ravasio, Marta Redaelli, and Massimo Lombardi. Werther Houston Grand Opera releases a recording of “Werther” starring Matthew Polenzani and Isabel Leonard. The opera is conducted by Robert Spano and also stars Jasmine Habersham and Sean Michael Plumb.
“This is a stunningly gorgeous, extremely difficult opera that demands .