![King Crimson - Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (40th Anniversary Edition) (1973/2023) [High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Ray Disc]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2024/05/12/138741_front.md.jpg)
Filippo Mineccia, I musici del Gran Principe & Samuele Lastrucci – Il castrato del granduca – Arias for Gaetano Berenstadt (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:45 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa
Like all castrati, Gaetano Berenstadt’s hormones had gone crazy, but Berenstadtis were particularly strong. With a height of about 185 cm, he is said to have had 130 cm long legs, arms that were far too short and a corpulent belly; a field day for the caricaturists. But when he stood on the opera stage and sang, he was idolised.
Berenstadt, born in Florence in 1687 and lifelong loyal to his patrons, the Medici, at the same time Grand Dukes of Tuscany, experienced his artistic career in the first third of the 18th century. He sang at all the important opera houses in Italy and for some years in London.
The most famous composers of his time such as Ariosti, Bononcini, Gasparini, Hasse, Sarro and Vinci appreciated him for his vocal and acting abilities. Handel in particular was a great admirer of Berenstadt; in addition to several roles in world premieres, he even wrote new arias for him for the London revival of Rinaldo in 1717.
Filippo Mineccia, also from Florence and one of the leading countertenors of our day, follows in the musical footsteps of his Florentine predecessor and draws an impressive portrait of Berenstadt’s career on this recording.
Read more
Marie van Rhijn, Samuel Mariño, Filippo Mineccia, Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal – Pergolèse & Vivaldi: Stabat Mater pour deux castrats (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:17:31 minutes | 757 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Château de Versailles Spectacles
These Stabat maters represent a deep-rooted exploration of the solemnity of the sacred and the operatic aspect of musical writing, both in the sombre and plaintive tonality of F minor. Comparing these masterpieces, that of Antonio Vivaldi (1712) and that of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1736), allowing them to resonate in the acoustics of the Royal Chapel of the Château de Versailles, just as they could have been heard in the 18th century, inspires and awakens a desire for balance between internalised faith – spirituality, and externalised faith – splendour. Pergolesi’s work was very popular in France. Given on the occasion of the feast of the Virgin, the Stabat mater dolorosa is based on a 13th century liturgical text by Jacopone da Todi, reintroduced by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727.
Read more
Divino Sospiro, Filippo Mineccia & Massimo Mazzeo – Avondano: La morte d’Abel (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:32:34 minutes | 1,68 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa
Paris, London, Naples, Venice… and Lisbon! The cartography of the (late) baroque music of Europe gives an ever better overview also of the musical happenings in the Portuguese capital in the 18th century. The revival of the Portuguese musical heritage is one of the main activities of the Divino Sospiro orchestra under its director Masssimo Mazzeo. A particularly worthwhile discovery is the composer Pedro Antonio Avondano (1714-1782), descended from a dynasty of musicians of Italian origin who were active in Lisbon in the 18th century. His oratorio “Morte d’Abel” (c. 1780) is based on a popular material by Pietro Metastasio, which was set to music some 40 times in the Baroque period and thereafter. Avondano’s feverish drama fully explores the souls of the protagonists of the story’s first murder. In doing so, he employs all the expressive possibilities of the baroque musical language, which already points to the classical period. A brilliant cast of singers rounds off this meritorious world premiere recording.
Read more
Filippo Mineccia, The New Baroque Times & Pablo García – Orlando: Amore, gelosia, follia (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:10:01 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa
In 1516 Ludovico Ariosto published his powerful epic Orlando furioso, a sequence of intertwined heroic adventures. The story of the knight Orlando, driven mad by a disappointed love for the princess Angelica, serves the entire range of emotions and quickly achieved great success throughout Europe. Dozens of operas were created around Orlando and other characters from Ariosto‘s epic. Countertenor Filippo Mineccia has put together a varied programme of arias from operas by Steffani, Porpora, Vivaldi, Handel, Mele, Wagenseil and Millico around the figure of “Raging Roland“, in which he brilliantly displays all the creative facets of his voice.
Read more
Filippo Mineccia – Gasparini, Bacci & Others: Alto Arias (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:04:46 minutes | 719 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa
Francesco Gasparini was held in high esteem by his contemporaries, as can be easily seen from his curriculum vitae: In Rome he was in the service of the great patrons of the arts Cardinal Pamphili, Marchese Ruspoli and the Borghese family, and in between he was music director at the Ospedale della Piet`a in Venice for twelve years, at the same time as Antonio Vivaldi. Gasparini wrote a total of almost 60 operas and nearly 30 oratorios, which were performed in many Italian cities. The countertenor Filippo Mineccia has cherry-picked the repertoire that suits his voice and presents a portrait of Gasparini’s alto arias. He was very careful to select arias with different affects in order to present Gasparini’s broad dramatic palette. Slow arias are interspersed with furioso pieces and contrapuntal pieces. Particularly brilliant are the rage arias, in which Mineccia is able to display all his vocal prowess. In the richly orchestrated and harmonically exciting arias from Gasparini’s oratorios, the Orchestra Nazionale Barocca dei Conservatori Italiani can shine with its qualities.
Read more