Talk to opera aficionados, or at least to Deutsche Grammophon's indefatigable army of publicists, and one will hear the name of rising tenor Jonathan Tetelman frequently. A bit of listening to The Great Puccini, his sophomore release, will confirm why: his voice has the effortless quality that was once associated with Luciano Pavarotti. It seems to issue forth from his vocal apparatus as a force of nature, lacking the tension in the high notes that one naturally expects. One might, it is true, accuse Tetelman of undertaking unambitious programming with a debut album of aria hits followed by a Puccini album, but this is not quite fair. Tetelman includes not only the evergreen "Che gelida manina" and "Nessun dorma" but selections from the lesser-known early Puccini operas. Sample "Toran ai felici di" from the very first Puccini opera, Le villi, which Tetelman boldly chooses as his finale. It sounds like a million bucks here, and this is reason enough to keep an eye on this young tenor. He doesn't always have the gift of stepping fully into a character and modulating the voice to match, but this will come with time and age and, perhaps, with a plum part in a full opera, which one hopes is on Deutsche Grammophon's agenda. Until then, listen and enjoy, along with all the others who put this release on classical best-seller charts in the autumn of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo

Supremely lovely and deeply beautiful, the performances on this two-disc set devoted to the music of Luigi Boccherini are compelling proof that the Italian-Spanish composer was more than a Rococo bantam weight. Beyond his well-known Minuet, Fandango, and "La Ritirada di Madrid" and his enormous number of cheerful cello concertos and sonatas written for the cello-playing Spanish king, Boccherini was also a composer of quartets, quintets, symphonies, and sacred works that rival those of his contemporary Haydn. This coupling of four symphonies, a string quintet, and the Stabat Mater by the Ensemble 415 led from the violin by Chiara Banchini is a wonderful introduction to Boccherini's art. In the three-movement symphonies, Banchini leads strong but sensitive performances that bring out the music's lyrical themes, subtle colors, and elegant shapes. With sweet-voiced soprano Agnés Mellon, Banchini finds within a strict sequence of recitatives and arias the sorrow, pity, and unshakable faith in the Stabat Mater. But perhaps best of all is the Quintet in C minor, Op. 31/4. The immensity of its grief, the austerity of its themes, and the intensity of expression is musically and emotionally overwhelming. Recorded in 1988 and 1991 in Harmonia Mundi's clearest, coolest sound, this two-disc set should be heard by anyone with an interest in music in the second half of the eighteenth century.© TiVo

The musicians of Les Ombres pay tribute to Luigi Boccherini. The free and audacious composer was an insatiable traveler and the inventor of the string quartet whose belatedly acknowledged genius has now earned him a major place in the history of music. © Mirare

This album presents a mix of studio tracks and altered live recordings from Frank Zappa's hard rock period. The tone is definitely less rock-oriented than on Them or Us, only "Stick Together" and "Cocaine Decisions" qualifying as such. The most noticeable trend here is the half-spoken half-sung free-form numbers "The Radio Is Broken," "The Dangerous Kitchen," and "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats." They all feature Zappa performing a written text or improvising one on the spot, speech-singing while the band wallops around, reacting to his words. A few instrumental tunes round out the set, including the superb "Moggio" and "Tink Walks Amok," with Arthur Barrow playing multiple bass parts. The album's title comes from a '50s song, included ("The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou [Medley]"), while the cover artwork alludes to an infamous Italian tour in 1982 plagued by mosquitoes and riots. There exists two different CD versions of this album. All reissues of the original 1983 LP in digital format before 1992 present a slightly remixed version. Post-1992 CDs feature an extensive remix, the track list has been modified, a bonus track added ("Luigi & The Wise Guys"), and different drum tracks recorded in the mid-'80s by Chad Wackerman have replaced the original live ones in "The Dangerous Kitchen" and "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats." Despite of these changes, The Man From Utopia retains the cold digital sound of Zappa's albums around this time but is more varied and engaging than Them or Us. © François Couture /TiVo

Cherubini's Les Abencérages, premiered in 1813, heralds the spectacle and extravagance of Romantic grand opera. From the Alhambra gardens to the battlefield, the action skillfully intertwines political conspiracies with a love story. Underpinned by the energy and timbres of period instruments, this recording demonstrates the work's modernity and it's musical qualities. Anaïs Constans valiantly tackles the demanding role of Noraïme, while Edgaras Montvidas displays his lyric tenor voice in a series of sublime airs whose beauty was already hinted at by none other than Roberto Alagna in a recital disc released in 2003. Around this couple, a plethoric cast of soloists (Dolié, Sargsyan, Williams, Martin, Lavoie, etc.) achieves the same high standards of French diction and style. The Hungarian conductor György Vashegyi, flanked by the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra, reveals here another key milestone of French Romantic opera. © Bru Zane

A homage from one superb Italian soprano to her forebear, the first "opera diva". Anna Renzi (c. 1620 – after 1661) was an Italian soprano renowned for her acting ability as well as her voice, who has been described as the first diva in the history of opera. Born in Rome, Anna Renzi was highly popular in Vienna in 1640s and made her debut in 1640 at the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in the presence of Cardinal Richelieu, as Lucinda in Il favorito del principe by the young composer Filiberto Laurenzi, who continued to function as her teacher and/or accompanist in later years. She became the most celebrated and highest-paid singer of the age, and famous composers wrote especially for her. Composers tended to make use of the full extent of Renzi's voice, which spanned from middle C to high B-flat, and the four surviving non-Monteverdian settings of roles written for her (by Sacrati, Laurenzi, Cesti and Ziani) are characterized by strong dramatic, emotional and stylistic contrasts, designed to show off her uncanny command of vocal and expressive means. As the most celebrated singer in Venice during the 1640s, Anna Renzi created roles in operas by the great dramatists of the day including Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea. As outlined by the booklet’s detailed essay on Renzi’s life and career, her career was not very long but dazzling. It centred round the many Venetian theatres and prestigious tours that took her to Florence, Genoa and Innsbruck: from 1640, when she made her debut in Rome, her home city, in the opera written by Laurenzi staged at the French embassy in Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, to 1657 in Le fortune di Rodope e Damira, set to music by Pietro Andrea Ziani, at Teatro Sant’Aponal in Venice. Roberta Invernizzi begins her recital with "Disprezzata regina" from L’incoronazione di Poppea and follows it with two arias from Cesti’s lesser-known Argia of 1655, hardly less dazzling in the brilliance of its vocal line. "O cara libertà" is a standalone aria from a collection by a composer two generations after Monteverdi, Filiberto Laurenzi (1618-after 1651), and Invernizzi ends the album on a high with three arias from his little-known drama La Finta Savia. Between the vocal selections, Ensemble Sezione Aurea insert instrumental interludes by Venetian contemporaries such as Rossi, Cima and Frescobaldi. The album as a whole adds up to a compelling portrait of Renzi, demonstrating her particular gift for bringing characters to vivid life on stage, and also a showcase for the vocal and dramatic talents of Roberta Invernizzi, who has taken lead roles in early operas under early-music luminaries including Alan Curtis, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. © Brilliant Classics