By bringing Catone to disc Carlo Ipata is celebrating the pasticcio, especially those curated by George Frideric Handel, as is the case with this new Glossa release. In a co-production involving the Fondazione Teatro di Pisa and the Händel Festspiele Halle, Ipata brings a further slant on Handel’s operatic career in London; whilst being busy with running the second Royal Academy of Music and writing his own operas, the composer was striving to present London audiences with selections from the best of recent Italian operas by other composers – all at the same time as giving his star singers the opportunity to show off early in the opera company’s season.

Orlando finto pazzo ('Orlando feigns madness') was the second of Vivaldi's numerous operas, and his first for the Venetian stage. The story of Orlando's madness is taken not from the usual source, Ariosto's poem Orlando furioso, but Boiardo's earlier Orlando innamorato, a similarly tragicomic mix of love, intrigue and magic. In Ariosto's poem Orlando's madness is real, but here he pretends it for no obvious reason; in fact it's no more than a couple of episodes in a convoluted and unengaging plot built around a lovepentangle (no less), and further complicated by various disguises and rampant dissembling.

La Partenope is a rich and colourful production, superbly performed here by I Turchini Orchestra and conductor Antonio Florio, world-renowned specialists of Baroque repertoire. In this version comic intermezzi have been added, as was customary in the eighteenth century.

Despite the public context – the story is played out against the backdrop of the Olympic Games – this is a drama which focuses on the personal predicaments of the principal characters, each of whom faces an interesting conflict between head and heart somewhere along the line. This is more apparent from Metastasio's words than from Vivaldi's music, to be honest, but that isn't to say that the composer has been unresponsive. The most effective and intimate moments occur in the recitatives, which are fluidly conversational and full of realistic interruptions, questions and exclamations, all of which Vivaldi handles with considerable dramatic skill.

Handel wrote the secular oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (The triumph of Time and of Enlightenment) to the text of one of his patrons, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, in Rome in 1707. The libretto, which doesn't stand up to close logical scrutiny, centers on Beauty, who must choose between self-indulgent Pleasure and the austerity of allegiance to Time and Enlightenment. Needless to say, any patron entering the theater for the performance, having noted the title on the playbill, would have no doubt about the outcome of the struggle, so dramatic suspense cannot have been one of the inducements for an eighteenth century audience. The rewards, however, are real, most notably Handel's remarkably fertile inventiveness and musical ingenuity, which justified sitting through a two-and-a-half-hour performance that was guaranteed to be a dramatic non-starter. Handel keeps recitatives to a minimum, and the oratorio is rich in musical substance and variety.

A perfect example of the creativity and diversity of Antonio Vivaldi's musicmaking, the opera Dorilla in Tempe is an enchanting listen. From the pastoral and fairytale-like atmosphere of the story, to the prominent role of the choir (which sings the well known 'Spring') and the insertion of several spectacular arias by fellow composers (thereby creating a ‘pasticcio' opera, as was common at the time): everything combines to draw the listener in to the emotional twists and turns of Princess Dorilla in her valley of Tempe, Greece.

Il Farnace is the most re-written and re-proposed of Vivaldi’s operas, it’s like a beloved child who worries his father, and to whom the parent always wants to give the best. Versions of Farnace, two in 1727 and one each in 1730, 1731 and 1732, had been conceived and adapted to the different circumstances for Venice, Prague, Pavia and Mantua, always with a cast to Vivaldi’s satisfaction and with the composer in control of the production.

No Handel opera is as enigmatic as Silla. His fourth London opera, it was composed in 1713 to a libretto by Giacomo Rossi, also the librettist of the composer s first great London triumph Rinaldo (1711). And that is just about the extent of any certainty on the subject. It might have been premiered in 1713 in London in a private concert at the Queen s Theatre, but even this remains unconfirmed. This is one of Handel s few historical operas, being concerned with Plutarch s account of the latter part of the life of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who after taking Rome became a tyrannical despot who murders his opponents, before suddenly retiring to his country estate to enjoy his leisure.

L’ensemble Cosarara, diretto da Giuseppe Camerlingo, propone la prima registrazione della trascrizione dello “Stabat Mater” di Pergolesi scritta nel 1810 a Giovanni Paisiello per un’esecuzione nel Duomo di Napoli. Il cavalier Paisiello proclama che non intende “dipartirsi dall’originalità”, ma eccome se aggiunge; gli strumenti a fiato e soprattutto quell’espressività più realista e più corposa che nel 1735, al tempo della creazione del capolavoro, subito notissimo in Europa, di Pergolesi, non preoccupava i compositori. L’Ottocento esige già il suo prezzo.

Die Festspielpremiere von ALCINA im Prinzregententheater am 17. Juli 2005 wurde wie so viele andere Premieren von Barock-Opern zu einem Höhepunkt der Münchner Opernsaison. Wer erinnert sich nicht gerne an die "Poppea", den "Rinaldo" oder natürlich "Giulio Cesare". Mit Anja Harteros und Vesselina Kasarova hatten sich zwei Topstars der internationalen Opernszene in dieser Inszenierung eingefunden. Unter der bewährten Leitung von Ivor Bolton wurde das ganze Ensemble vom Publikum bei jeder Vorstellung mit Ovationen gefeiert, der Nachhall in der Presse war nicht minder euphorisch!

Sacred Cantatas Naxos' Eighteenth Century Classics series treats listeners to a couple of samplings from a genre in which Giovanni Battista Sammartini, "father of the symphony," was involved to a largely unknown extent, the sacred cantata. Both of these works come from 1751, which must have been a very sad year indeed for this composer, as they are Maria Addolorata (The Sorrowing Mary) and Il pianto di San Pietro (The Tears of Saint Peter). These works have been edited for publication by musicologist Daniele Ferrari, and are recorded here with Ferrari himself conducting.

Farnace was apparently one of Vivaldi's favorite operas, because he mounted numerous productions in various cities, and wrote six versions of the score, more than of any of his other operas. The conventions of operatic vocal characterizations that came to be standard – higher voices in the sympathetic roles, and lower voices in villainous roles – had not yet been established, and Farnace features a baritone and contralto in the heroic roles, with a soprano as the villain. Soprano Adriana Fernández shines as the wicked Berenice, who is redeemed at the very last minute. She has a full, creamy voice that she deploys appealing agility and warmth.

This is the first recording in the complete Monteverdi cycle with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, made possible by a three-year collaboration between Dynamic and Teatro Real. Luigi Pizzi's attractive and original staging is enhanced by the rich colour of 17th century costumes. The musicians - and Christie himself - also perform in costume, with the conductor clad in a flowing red cloak and white ruffed collar. The DVD also features interviews with Christie, Pizzi and the Opera's two protagonists.

Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) is today best known as an eccentric violin virtuoso and composer of instrumental music, but he has also successfully operated as an opera composer during his time in London. His first opera Adriano in Siria was created in 1735 for the London Opera of Nobility, the rival company to Handel's opera troupe. The company had only a few years earlier (including the soprano castrato Senesino and Francesca Cuzzoni) poached all singing stars from Handel. Even worse: since 1734, it could also score with the castrato legend Farinelli. Veracini's Adriano in Siria is, in every respect, a spectacular and fascinating opera. The recording of Fabio Biondi and an appropriate illustrious singers ensemble is based on a highly successful concert performance series of the work at the Vienna Konzerthaus in 2013, which made alive again the spectacular opera event of 1735.

The history of opera is inseparably linked with the biographies of singers; audiences have always been fascinated by both musical prowess and behind the scenes goings-on. The battle for prestige and fame was heated and passionate in the Baroque era, with legendary rivalries. Fiercely competitive, Cuzzoni and Bordoni were among the most acclaimed divas of the age, resorting to fisticuffs on stage. Present-day prima donnas Genaux, Prina, Nesi and Basso now follow in the footsteps of their fervid predecessors, presenting on disc a tongue-in-cheek survey of standout arias for mezzo soprano and contralto.