La Traviata

TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

La traviata is Verdi’s most popular opera and one of the best loved of all stage works. Romance, tragedy and unforgettable tunes – this opera has it all. But modern audiences have largely lost sight of the fact that its plot was altogether unprecedented at the time of the work’s composition: with the tale of a highclass prostitute dying of consumption, Verdi raised his fondness for daring subjects to a whole new level.

I vespri siciliani

TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

Not until 1855 did Verdi have a chance to try his hand at the genre of French grand opera. A setting of a libretto by Eugène Scribe, Les Vêpres siciliennes proved a success in Paris despite the problematical nature of its subject matter, which deals with the Sicilian uprising against occupying French forces in Palermo in 1282. Today, the opera is usually given in the Italian version of 1861 as I Vespri siciliani.

Simon Boccanegra

TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

None of Verdi’s other operas was subjected to as radical a series of revisions as Simon Boccanegra. The initial version of 1857 was not a success, so that in 1880/81 Verdi not only rewrote large sections of the score but together with his new librettist Arrigo Boito also reworked the libretto. The result was a sombre work full of overwhelming sound pictures. This second version proved a great and lasting success.

Beethoven, Missa Solemnis

With this majestic performance of Beethoven‘s Missa solemnis, Nikolaus Harnoncourt once again demonstrates why he is to be ranked as one of the very few truly significant musicians of our time. Created between 1819 and 1823, the Missa solemnis is the most extensive non-stage work that Beethoven wrote. This magnificent choral piece represented a great personal struggle for the composer, who famously inscribed the top of the score with the words “From the heart – may it return to the heart.” Tim Ashley, reviewing a repeat concert at London’s Barbican, wrote in The Guardian: “This shattering performance ranked among the greatest I have heard.”