Welcome back for this week\u2019s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world.<\/p>\n
This week it’s all about the tenor. Three of opera’s leading tenors release albums that feature their vocal depths and their passion. There are a number of the world premiere recordings and several choral albums.<\/p>\n
Donald Nally\u2019s chamber choir The Crossing releases its latest studio album which features original compositions by composers Martin Bresnick and Mason Bates.<\/p>\n
Bresnick\u2019s song cycle “Self-Portraits 1964” exclusively deals with the life and personality of a single man while Bates\u2019 trilogy “Mass Transmission” takes a telegraph conversation between mother and daughter in the 1920s and sets it to music.<\/p>\n
Nathan Granner presents an album of tenor arias by Pa\u00ebr, Mozart, Gluck, Salieri, and Bologne. He is joined by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, under the baton of Clelia Cafiero. PENTATONE releases the album.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Granner said, \u201cAs I sit here, reflecting on the creation of this album, I can\u2019t help but marvel at the parallels between our modern world and the Age of Enlightenment. Just like the classical era from 1750 to 1827, we find ourselves seeking comfort and stability amidst the chaos that surrounds us. The societal changes and revolutions of THAT time transformed every aspect of life, from literature and music to the very nature of war. It was a time when people began to demand their rights. Opera characters like Beaumarchais\u2019 Figaro and Susanna and Da Ponte\u2019s Don Ottavio subtly led to real-world shifts in how we treated one another.”<\/p>\n
Ensemble Modern Media will release a new album featuring four works by George Benjamin, performed by the Ensemble Modern Orchestra and soprano Anna Prohaska. The album features “A Mind of Winter” “At First Light,” “Palimpsests” and the arrangements of the “Art of the Fugue.”<\/p>\n
Warner Classics releases Pene Pati’s second album, which balances favorite numbers with operatic rarities \u2013 two of them in world premiere recordings. The album features works by Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti, Mascagni, Mercadante, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Massenet, Hal\u00e9vy and Guiraud. Joining the Samoan tenor on the album are his soprano wife, Amina Edris, his tenor brother Amitai Pati, conductor Emmanuel Villaume, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and the Choeur de l\u2019Op\u00e9ra National de Bordeaux.<\/p>\n