To read the Spanish language booklet note click here and for Italian click here.
Autumn 2012 marks the release of Mission, a sensational release from the world’s best-selling classical artist Cecilia Bartoli and a project with international politics, religious conflict, diplomatic secrecy, spying and sensational music at its heart.
Following the exceptional artistic and commercial success of 2009’s Sacrificium (which earned Cecilia her fifth Grammy award), Cecilia Bartoli now turns to the early baroque period for the first time in her recording career and uncovers a treasure of beautiful music in an album almost entirely composed of world premiere recordings.
The album showcases the music of little-known Italian composer Agostino Steffani (1654–1728), and will include solo arias of various moods and styles, several duets, solo numbers with chorus - all sung in Italian - and instrumental interludes that create an organic transition from one piece to the next and an arc that reaches from the beginning to the end of the album.
Such was the appeal of the project that longtime Bartoli admirer and global best-selling author Donna Leon decided to write a mystery novel - The Jewels of Paradise - to accompany Cecilia’s album, which uses the mystery surrounding the composer’s story as the centre of its plot. The Jewels of Paradise will be released simultaneously with Cecilia Bartoli’s album in English (UK and USA), German, French, Dutch, Spanish and Catalan.
Among the distinguished names appearing on Mission is star French counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky who features in a first-time collaboration with Cecilia on a selection of duets, alongside the Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, the period orchestra „I Barocchisti“ from Lugano, Switzerland, and conductor Diego Fasolis.
Mission will be issued in a hardback book product, which includes much historic information written by specialists in the various fields. There will also be a deluxe edition available which joins the novel and the CD together in one product.
New media techniques will be exploited even further, for example webisodes and a playful and imaginative iPad App, which is designed especially for this project.
Tracklist
1 Schiere invitte, non tardate (Alarico) 2.15
Alarico il Baltha, cioè L’audace re de’ Gothi
2 Ogni core può sperar* (Tanaquil) 4.23 136
Servio Tullio
3 Ove son? Chi m’aita? In mezzo all’ombre … Dal mio petto* (Anfione) 5.18
Niobe, regina di Tebe
4 Più non v’ascondo (Rotrude) 2.19
Tassilone
5 Amami, e vederai* (Niobe) 6.41
Niobe, regina di Tebe with Rosario Conte lute
6 T’abbraccio, mia Diva … Ti stringo, mio Nume* (Creonte, Niobe) 2.42
Niobe, regina di Tebe with Philippe Jaroussky
7 Mie fide schiere, all’armi!* (Iarba, Ufficiali di Iarba) 3.26
I trionfi del fato Suoni, tuoni, il suolo scuota* (Erta) Arminio
8 Sposa, mancar mi sento … Deh non far colle tue lagrime* (Tassilone) 5.42
Tassilone
9 Non prendo consiglio* (Ermolao) 1.17
La superbia d’Alessandro
10 Sì, sì, riposa, o caro … Palpitanti sfere belle* (Sabina) 3.12
Alarico il Baltha
11 Notte amica al cieco Dio* (Alcibiade) 3.48
La libertà contenta
12 Combatton quest’alma* (Enea, Lavinia) 2.08
I trionfi del fato with Philippe Jaroussky
13 A facile vittoria (Sigardo) 2.58
Tassilone
14 Tra le guerre e le vittorie* (Alessandro, Coro) 1.27
La superbia d’Alessandro
15 Foschi crepuscoli* (Aspasia) 2.05 150
La libertà contenta
16 Dell’alma stanca a raddolcir le tempre … Sfere amiche, or date al labbro*(Anfione) 6.16
Niobe, regina di Tebe
17 La cerasta più terribile (Alcide) 2.38
La lotta d’Hercole con Acheloo
18 Serena, o mio bel sole … Mia fiamma … Mio ardore* (Anfione, Niobe) 2.21
Niobe, regina di Tebe with Philippe Jaroussky
19 Dal tuo labbro amor m’invita* (Tassilone) 2.39
Tassilone
20 Deh stancati, o sorte* (Aspasia) 3.04
La libertà contenta
21 Svenati, struggiti, combatti, suda* (Alcibiade) 3.11
La libertà contenta
22 Padre, s’è colpa in lui* (Rotrude) 5.08
Tassilone
23 Timori, ruine* (Atalanta, Meleagro, Coro) 1.35
Le rivali concordi with Philippe Jaroussky
24 Morirò fra strazi e scempi (Henrico) 2.40
Henrico Leone
25 Non si parli che di fede* (Coro) 1.19
Marco Aurelio *World premiere recording on CD
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http://smarturl.it/itunesmission
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