Che Puro Ciel  –  The Rise of Classical Opera
Bejun Mehta
Die Akademie für Alte Musik
René Jacobs, conductor
Format: Audio CD

Label: Harmonia Mundi HMC902172

✭ DIAMANT D’OPERA MAGAZINE ✭
✭ CHOC DE CLASSICA ✭

In the famous Preface to Alceste, Christoph Willibald Gluck and his librettist Ranieri de’ Calzabigi posited a new direction for opera. They spoke of moving beyond Baroque forms, of striving for a new naturalism in opera. They wanted, in Calzabigi’s words, to ”liberate the language of the heart.” Taken from the height of this Reform period, the arias on Che pur ciel reveal composers exploring and experimenting, at struggle and at play, as they create the new forms that bring to opera the noble simplicity of the Classical era.