Presto Editor's Choice
May 2021

Gramophone Magazine
July 2021
Editor's Choice

BBC Music Magazine
September 2021
Opera Choice

Kate Lindsey (mezzo), Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen

Scarlatti, A: Il Nerone "Io son Neron" for Soprano & B.c
Handel: Agrippina condotta a morire, HWV 110
Monteverdi: Hor che Seneca e morto (Drinking Song) from L'Incoronatione di Poppea
Monteverdi: Son rubin preziosi (from L'incoronazione di Poppea)
Monteverdi: Addio Roma! (from L'incoronazione di Poppea)
Monteverdi: Pur ti miro (I gaze upon you) from L'Incoronazione di Poppea
Nardus Williams, Kate Lindsey (soloist)
Monari: La Poppea
Scarlatti, A: La Morte Di Nerone

Corruption? Betrayal? Persecution? Tyranny? These subjects resonate with the current events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. They also provide the subject matter of many seventeenth-century musical works. Kate Lindsey has chosen to devote this second Baroque recital with the English ensemble Arcangelo directed by Jonathan Cohen (following Arianna in 2020, ALPHA576) to the figure of Nero. Scarlatti, Handel and Monteverdi wrote works focusing on this tragic protagonist and his entourage, including his mother Agrippina and his wives (Poppaea and Octavia). Interpreted with incredible intensity by the American mezzo-soprano, the programme features world premiere recordings of two cantatas: Alessandro Scarlatti’s La morte di Nerone (c.1690) and Bartolomeo Monari’s La Poppea (1685). Tenor Andrew Staples and soprano Nardus Williams join Kate Lindsey for duets from L’incoronazione di Poppea, including the sensual ‘Pur ti miro’