French operatic coloratura soprano Sabine Devieilhe is known for her interpretation of works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Baroque music, and 19th-century operas. The word “coloratura” comes from the Latin word colorare (meaning “to color”) and a coloratura soprano is the highest voice, and it’s characterized by virtuosic fast notes that are light and brilliantly executed. […]

This weekend (August 2-4) is the annual TWINS DAYS FESTIVAL in Twinsburg, OH. The main mission of the event includes providing a vehicle for celebrating the uniqueness of twins and others of multiple birth. (See link below for more information about Twins Days.) Today’s Beautiful Music features a couple of musical twins from Washington, DC

Today’s Beautiful Music is a recording of a full concert that was streamed in February 2021. North Carolina Chamber Music Institute hosted a concert called CHAMBER MUSIC TREASURES: MUSIC BY AFRICAN AMERICAN COMPOSERS. The program included music by Florence Price, Adolphus Hailstork, Samuel Coleridge -Taylor, Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and James Weldon Johnson. There

Markellos Chryssicos and Venice Baroque Orchestra decided to feature selections from various settings of the story L’OLIMPIADE. Dozens of composers have set the libretto to music, and this compilation includes settings by Leonardo Leo, Johann Adolf Hasse, Giuseppe Sarti, Josef Mysliveček, Giovanni Paisiello, Davide Perez, Florian Leopold Gassmann, and many others. Use the link below

As the Paris Olympics continue, we’re having a marathon listening tour of some of the numerous opera settings of Pietro Metastasio’s libretto for THE OLYMPIAD. Today’s Beautiful Music is Domenico Cimarosa’s setting, performed by Christophe Rousset leading Les Talens Lyriques. It’s from their recording released in May 2024.

Today’s Beautiful Music is another setting of L’OLIMPIADE, an opera with a plot by Pietro Metastasio, and set to music by more than 50 composers. This version is by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, composed in 1735.

Yesterday’s Beautiful Music featured Antonio Vivaldi’s opera setting of L’OLIMPIADE, based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio. Today’s Beautiful Music features another composer’s version of the story. Baldassare Galuppi composed his setting in 1747, and it premiered in Milan in December of that year. This performance features Andrea Marcon & Venice Baroque Orchestra. There’s a

Antonio Vivaldi’s opera L’OLIMPIADE RV 722 premiered in Venice in 1734. The libretto by Pietro Metastasio was set to music by 50 composers over the years. Today’s Beautiful Music features Vivaldi’s version, performed by Federico Maria Sardelli and Musica Viva. There’s a link below to the plot of L’OLIMPIADE. http://operascotland.org/opera/430/Olimpiade#:~:text=The%20action%20takes%20place%20near,and%20run%20in%20the%20Games.