baroque opera

We're turning to the music of Rameau this week and an excellent recording of the 1744 version of "Dardanus" about the trials of the son of Electra and Jupiter (Zeus) as he expands his empire and wins his love.

This week's opera once again comes to us from Barcelona and the Gran Teatre del Liceau Opera. Very loosely based on fact, the opera charts the rise of Poppea to the position of Nero's wife and Empress.

This is one of the 27 settings of the libretto for "Cato in Utica" that was written by Pietro Metastasio. This world premier recording is of the 1758 version by Giovanni Battista Ferrandini features a cast lead by conductor Christoph Hammer.

Four Baroque operas: two from Michel-Richard de Lalande and two from Marc-Antoine Charpentier performed by casts from the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF)

This week's opera comes from London's Royal Opera and features Antonio Vivaldi's 1735 opera about the life of Bajazet after his defeat by Tamerlane.

For 278 years, Antonio Vivaldi's opera laid dormant in the National Library in Turin. It was found and brought back to life in 2005, and it is to that recording we'll be listening on this week's program.