Starting with the `Passione', this is a meditation on Christ's Passion consisting mainly of a `Dialogo' between the Virgin Mary (soprano Emanuela Galli) and St John (Giuseppe Naviglio, bass), with contributions from a pair of angels and others. The music is vivid and demonstrative, with lovely vocal passages and some wonderful duetting, all very finely sung. The lively accompaniment from period instruments is superb, and it's all directed with spirit and inspiration by Antonio Florio.

If Naples, under the reforming wing of Caravaggio, experienced a golden age in the pictorial arts in the 17th century, the same holds true for musical composition. Antonio Florio unveils for us today the musical treasures of this dazzing era nourished by the expressive opulence of the predecessors of A. Scarlatti. A roster of remarkable soloists gives life and flesh to one of the scores exemplifying Neapolitan devotion. The casting dazzles through its presence and its incantatory illumination: Gloria Banditelli is Rosalia, thrilling, sensual, passionate. La Colomba follows on the style of Provenzale's operas. It solidifies the social ascension of the musician to the court of the viceroy, since the work was premiered at the Palace in 1670 by the figliuoli of the Conservatory of Santa Maria di Loreto, of which he was choir director. But this bountiful drama fits into the cycle of other sacred projects by Provenzale: one can attribute to him a "life" of Teresa d'Avila, one of San Gennaro, another of Santa Rosa.

Pour tous ceux qui ne connaissaient pas la musique sacrée de Jommelli, ce CD apportera la preuve éclatante du talent et de la versatilité d’un compositeur né et mort près de Naples, mais dont l’essentiel de la carrière se déroula à Stuttgart, Vienne, Rome ainsi que dans la plupart des grandes villes italiennes.

Eleven imaginative and melodically striking vocal pieces from a collection published in 1660, towards the end of the relatively short life of one of the most famous female composers, Barbara Strozzi. Ranging in length from two minutes to 14 and with a variety of moods to match, they are performed with feeling (though not a lot of colour) by Emanuela Galli with jangling support from Ensemble Galilei’s three guitars, four theorbos and (only one) organ. The haunting Lagrime mie is alone worth the price of the disc.

Nowadays, little introduction on record is needed for the dramatic output of Jean-Baptiste Lully: his style has become unquestionably associated with French music of the 17th century. But long before he became the all-conquering composer of tragédies en musique at the court of Louis XIV, Giovanni Battista Lulli, during his early years in Paris and encouraged by the also Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, helped to spread the music from his native country into the French court. Lully’s own initial compositions - forging his unmistakable style - focused on music for ballets de cour and for these his instrumental entrées were combined with vocal sections in Italian such as arias and Le Florentin’s early treatment of recitative. Not just transalpine composers were welcomed in Paris but singers too.

As part of their comprehensive survey of the music of Claudio Monteverdi, Claudio Cavina and La Venexiana delivered an exceptional version of L’Orfeo, a reading which had been honed by their trailblazing interpretations of the composer’s madrigals. This highly-esteemed recording of the favola in musica – critics applauded and fêted it in many different countries – subsequently dropped out of the catalogue and Glossa is very pleased to have the opportunity to return it there as part of this year’s 450th anniversary commemorations of the composer’s birth.

This delightful intermezzo per musica in two acts - recounting the old story of a naïve young nobleman and of a sly girl who, after a series of squabbles and pranks, following the best of traditions, declare eternal love to each other and decide to get married - has pleased audiences ever since its first performance at the San Samuele theatre in Venice in 1750, and is here recorded for the first time. At that time the intermezzo was already a well-defined and self-standing music form, detached from opera seria, with which, originally, it had been combined. It was also, however, in a declining phase and nearing its disappearance. And yet L'uccellatrice by Niccolò Jommelli enjoyed many performances (Leipzig, 1751; Bologna, Ravenna and Vicenza, 1753; Parma, 1756; Florence, 1760; Pescia, 1772) and was even translated into French, with the score adapted and enlarged.

A few years after the assassination of Stradella, Pierre Bourdelot and Pierre Bonnet-Bourdelot included a story of the episode in their Histoire de la Musique in 1715, and consequently the ‘legend of Stradella’ was born. According to the legend, Stradella had disappeared with the lover of a Venetian noble, who in response hired a band of assassins to pursue the lovers from city to city. In the booklet of this CD – with its recording from Enrico Gatti, his Ensemble Aurora and Emanuela Galli in the title role – are contained the latest results of Carolyn Gianturco’s investigation into the life and works of Stradella, including some completely new information. La Susanna, an erotic oratorio, was written by Stradella in 1681 on commission from Francesco II, Duke of Modena, who was very fond of the genre.

The booklet for this release tells us that it is not only a world premiere recording but that La Rosinda has been revived on only one other occasion since the 17th century. Baroque opera enthusiasts should be circling, then, for this is a work in which Cavalli’s skills as an opera composer who can mix fluidity of text with just enough lyricism to make musical drama that is both compelling and attractive are clearly displayed.

Ce Vinci-là est un maître de l'opera buffa napolitain et, pour le Carnaval de 1722, excelle à emmener ces «Fiancés en galère» sur les flots de la pétulance dialectale et macaronique la plus débridée. Musique de lumière et de bonne humeur, nouvelle réussite de la série «Tesori di Napoli» que mène Antonio Florio, avec la verve irrésistible de toute son équipe chantante et violinante.

Working in 17th-century Venice soon after the worlds first public opera houses opened there, composer Francesco Cavalli had no tradition to follow. He gave his fertile imagination free rein, tinkering with the brand-new art form to create the lively Venetian style of opera, with its melodious arias, sprightly dance rhythms, free-wheeling mythological or historical plots and generous dollops of comedy. Like most of Cavallis operas, Ilpermestra wasnt performed between the late 17th century and recent years. Ilpermestra was written on the occasion of the birth of King Philip IV of Spains first son in 1658. It was one of the most magnificent operas to have ever been staged. This is the world premiere recording of the opera, made after a live stage performance in Utrecht in 2006.

Alessandro Stradella was one of the most important Italian composers of the seventeenth century. This recording presents the only two cantatas Stradella composed for Christmas, preceded by the instrumental Sonata di Viole, the earliest entirely instrumental works (i.e., unconnected to a vocal source) for the concertino-concerto grosso ensemble in the history of the genre.

Giovanni Bononcini composed the four-part oratorio La Conversione di Maddalena for the Habsburg emperor Leopold I in 1701. The musician from Modena, at the time at the apex of his European fame, had at his disposal the best forces of the Imperial Chapel: four singers (two sopranos, a contralto and a bass) of top rate and an instrumental ensemble, limited to strings but adequately consistent to articulate a concert dialectic with tutti-concertino, including soloist pages for the violin, the cello and the viola da gamba.

Composer and cellist Domenico Gabrielli, was born in Bologna on 15 April 1659. He only lived to be 31 and he is a composer probably only familiar to cellists, or rather Baroque cellists. His seven Ricercari for cello solo are indeed the first predecessors of Bach’s cello Suites, and his two cello sonatas and his Canon for two cellos are among the earliest examples of their genre. Much less well-known is the fact that Gabrielli was also a celebrated opera and oratorio composer and published several trio sonatas and (posthumously) a volume of secular cantatas for voice and basso continuo. The present release is completed by some works by Bartolomeo Monari (1662-1707). Emanuela Galli's ravishing voice leads us through these lesser known Baroque compositions revealing the beauty of that music.

Luigi Rossi (ca. 1597 - 20 February 1653) was an Italian Baroque composer. Rossi was born in Torremaggiore, a small town near Foggia, in the ancient kingdom of Naples and at an early age he went to Naples. There he studied music with the Franco-Flemish composer Jean de Macque who was organist of the Santa Casa dell’Annunziata and maestro di cappella to the Spanish viceroy. Rossi later entered the service of the Caetanis, dukes of Traetta.