The Montecassino Monastery recently hosted the score of this comic opera by Leonardo Leo, one of the leading Neapolitan composers of the 18th century, who introduced new stylistic elements to the genre. Cirillo shows in a very exciting way in his direction how nothing actually happens in this opera - apart from a very subtle play of the relationships between the seven protagonists. As with Marivaux, this is about the social differences when the middle class turns to the servants and vice versa, and as in a Feydeauschen comedy, they wander on stage (and leave again) to spy, to portray themselves, or to court someone until everyone is eaten away by doubt.

When one speaks today of the history of the Italian solo concert, one thinks first of Bologna (Torelli, Corelli) and Venice (Albinoni, Vivaldi). It is sometimes overlooked that important impulses for the further development of the genre also emanated from Naples. In addition, cellists in particular owe a lot to the Neapolitans, which this CD aims to clarify. The best known are probably the six concertos by Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) with their light, sometimes gallant tone; of them the A major concerto is represented here along with four individual works by Nicola Fiorenza (died 1764), Nicola Porpora (1686–1768) and Nicola Sabatino (approx. 1705-1796).

Everything is done with affection and great character as well as technical finesse. Such music demands innate timing, and these musicians, under Antonio Florio's direction, have it.

Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená hasn't often sung Baroque music. Thus, it is all the more impressive that when she does, she devises really innovative programs with unusual music. Her enthusiasm for the project may be gauged by her comment here: "I could hardly imagine more passionate, savage, uninhibited yet loving and caressing companions for these desperate heroines than Vaclav Luks and the musicians of Collegium 1704." She's right about the musicians, yet the real spotlight is on Kožená herself. The program consists of secular cantatas from the first half of the 18th century; this genre has been neglected amidst the general rediscovery of Baroque opera.

Neapolitan music of the 18th century, so important in the formation of the musical lingua franca of the Classical period, is a massively neglected area wherein lie many riches. Despite his greater interest in opera, Leo was maestro di cappella at the Naples royal chapel and composed a good deal of church music, especially towards the end of his life (he died in 1744), in which sound counterpoint and the clarity of modern melodic developments are successfully combined. These are not sterile exercises in ‘old-style’ polyphony, but works of honest, thoroughly Italianate expression.

Greek mezzo-soprano, Mary-Ellen Nesi, who sings all five works, produces a stream of gloriously firm tone reminiscent of Bernada Fink, another superb mezzo on the scene these days. Her diction and moulding of phrases here is excellent. The two Leonardo Leo settings of the Salve Regina (in C Minor and F Major) which begin the disc are followed by a cello Concerto (also by Leonardo Leo) and a world premiere recording of an Alessandro Scarlatti setting of salve Regina (in C Minor) and then the two better known Pergolesi settings (in C and A Minor) conclude the disc. The cello soloist is lovely too and all works receive excellent support from Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco.

"Lava", "La Diva", "Bel Canto" - these are the names of some of Simone Kermes' highly praised and successful albums. Their new album "Inferno e Paradiso" is thematically about "Heaven and Hell" about "Virtues and Deadly Sins" - musically illustrated with 14 titles from four centuries from baroque to rock, from Bach to Sting, from Vivaldi to Led Zeppelin.

With more than a million copies sold, the soundtrack of Gérard Corbiau's film 'Farinelli' contributed considerably to the international renown of Les Talens Lyriques, in 1994. Back then the voice of the castrato Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli (1705-1782), was created using a computer to mix the voices of countertenor Derek Lee Ragin and soprano Ewa Mallas-Godlewska. On stage, in 2011, rather than a falsettist, world-renowned mezzo Ann Hallenberg, was chosen by Christophe Rousset to portray the first rock star in the history of music.

Presented by the Festival della Valle d’Itria, this is the first modern-day staging of Leonardo Leo’s Neapolitan revision of Handel’s Rinaldo, a pastiche with a Mediterranean allure, which was composed in 1718 but considered lost until a few years ago. The story behind this rare opera is fascinating: the score of Handel’s masterpiece was brought illegally to Naples by the castrato singer Nicolò Grimaldi, who had performed Rinaldo in London. Once in Italy, the work was given a makeover by local composers, including Leo, who adapted it to the taste of the Neapolitan public, adding intermezzos and amusing characters.

Recorded in the summer of 2013, with an ensemble of seven musicians, 'Dolce Napoli' presents unique concertos and sonatas by amongst others Fiorenza, Rosa, Leo, Pullj and Mancini, including works only very recently rediscovered. The CD also premieres two copies of Italian Baroque recorders never heard in modern times, which were the focus of this project. Also unique is the use of three different pitches for the recording, accompanying the original pitches of the recorders utilized. In this way, the sonority of all the instruments used is varied in a 'pitch wave' that fluctuates in frequency.

Italian composer Francesco Cilea (1866-1950) is best known for his operas, particularly "Adriana Lecouvreur." However, his contributions to instrumental music should not be overlooked. Though less renowned than his operatic output, Cilea's instrumental works exhibit a melodic richness and emotional depth characteristic of the Romantic era. Cilea's orchestral works show his mastery of lyrical themes and dramatic expression. His works are imbued with a sense of Italianate warmth and passion, reflecting the composer's deep connection to his native land.

Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) was a Neapolitan composer whom academics have sometimes pushed as the missing link between Pergolesi and the full flowering of the early Classical style. Niccolò Jommelli and Gluck Piccinni were among his students, and his own operas feature smooth, lightly accompanied arias that do seem to look forward to the spirit of Gluck and even Mozart. Several recordings of the early 2000s have unearthed his almost-forgotten instrumental music, with liner notes chiding listeners (in the words of the present disc) "so entirely enamored with Vivaldi…that they have ignored music derived from other circles or styles."

The young Swiss soprano Marie Lys was pleasantly surprised to discover that many of the roles she has sung in George Frideric Handel’s works in recent years were written for the spectacularly virtuoso soprano Anna Maria Strada, Handel’s prima donna in the London of the 1730s. Accompanied by the Abchordis Ensemble and Andrea Buccarella, the group’s conductor and harpsichordist, Marie Lys decided to dedicate her first solo CD on Glossa to “La Stradina”, with an in-depth study of Anna Maria’s life on stage and the extraordinary vocal skills her roles demanded.

Charivari Agreable perform a collection of overtures from the Italian Baroque Opera, best described by director Kah-Ming Ng as lucidly crafted for the purpose of turning heads. In a decadent era when the theatregoers antics were often as intriguing as the on-stage performances, these works were composed to thrill, beguile and engage a distracted audience. Charivari Agreable represent a new and very exciting phase of the early music revival, one that enriches the existing repertory and can bring us ever closer to the spirit of the original music.

The Carnival of Venice in 1729 was quite unlike any other. Over a period of two months, opera houses went into a frenzy of competition to show off the most famous singers of the day, including the legendary castrato Farinelli who made his astonishing Venetian debut. Several of the most fashionable composers rose to the occasion, writing ravishing music for spectacular productions which often pitted the singers against each other in breathtaking displays of virtuosity. The results were sensational; one tour de force followed another in an atmosphere of fevered excitement and the adoring public lapped it up.