Gagliano: La Flora
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Description
The birth of opera began around 1600 in Florence, where this new genre was used to accompany important political events. The court conductor Marco da Gagliano, who had also become acquainted with Monteverdi's new style during his time in Mantua, created a whole series of operas for the Medici house, but only two have survived.
His opera La Flora, to a libretto by the Florentine court poet Andrea Salvadori, was written for the wedding celebrations of Margerita de' Medici to the Duke of Parma Odoardo Farnese in 1628.
The mythological material has many political references and tells of the love between the wind Zeffiro and the nymph Clori, who changes her name to Flora when she marries and gives birth to many kinds of flowers. Botticelli had already pictorially realised this myth 40 years earlier in his "Birth of Venus" and "La Primavera".
For this recording, more than a dozen solo singers, choristers and a large instrumental cast have come together to bring Gagliano's opera back to life almost 400 years after its premiere!
Tracklisting
Lina Tur Bonet, Musica Alchemica
Eduardo Eguez, La Compagnia del Madgriale
La Compagnia del Madrigale
Orchestra of the 18th Century; Frans Bruggen
Le Concert Spirituel; Herve Niquet
Graindelavoix; Bjorn Schmelzer; Manuel Mota
Jose Maria Lo Monaco; Stefano Aresi; Stile Galante
Orchestra of the 18th Century
Thomas Sanderling, Orchester des Nationaltheaters Mannheim
Malcolm Sargent, Mary Lewis, Tudor Davies, Maggie Teyte, Clive Carey, Marie Howes, Harry Plunket Greene, James Johnstone
Maria Callas
Soloists; Eroica Berlin; Jakob Lehmann
Luigi De Donato; Collegium 1704; Vaclav Luks
Anna Moffo; Cesare Valletti; Fernando Corena; Erich Leinsdorf
Soloists; Orchestre classique de Montreal; Alain Trudel
Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi, Natalia Rubis, Pawel Konik, Krzysztof Baczyk, Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir