Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known by his nicknames Elagabalus and Heliogabalus, was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was notorious for sex scandals and religious controversy. A close relative to the Severan dynasty, he came from a prominent Arab family in Emesa (Homs), Syria, where since his early youth he served as head priest of the sun god Elagabal. After the death of his cousin, the emperor Caracalla, Elagabalus was raised to the principate at 14 years of age in an army revolt instigated by his grandmother Julia Maesa against Caracalla's short-lived successor, Macrinus. He only posthumously became known by the Latinised name of his god.
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi. It was Monteverdi's last opera, with a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, and was first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1643 carnival season. One of the first operas to use historical events and people, it describes how Poppaea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nero, is able to achieve her ambition and be crowned empress. The opera was revived in Naples in 1651, but was then neglected until the rediscovery of the score in 1888, after which it became the subject of scholarly attention in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the 1960s, the opera has been performed and recorded many times.
Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La precauzione inutile is a comic opera by Giovanni Paisiello to a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, even though his name is not identified on the score's title page.
Scipione affricano is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It was designated as a dramma per musica. The Italian libretto was by Nicolò Minato, based on Livy's "The Continence of Scipio".
Pompeo Magno is an opera in three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It was designated as a dramma per musica. The Italian libretto was by Nicolò Minato.
Oristeo is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It was designated as a dramma per musica. The Italian libretto was by Giovanni Faustini.
Erismena is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. First performed in Venice in 1655, it was designated as a dramma per musica.
Veremonda, l'amazzone di Aragona is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the Italian composer Francesco Cavalli. The libretto is by Giulio Cicognini with revisions by Giulio Strozzi. The date of the Venetian performance is uncertain.
Elena is a 1659 three-act dramma per musica in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It is set to a libretto initiated by Giovanni Faustini and completed by Nicolò Minato, and it was first performed in Venice at the Teatro San Cassiano. Elena was revived in 1661 in Palermo but then not heard again until 2013, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Mutio Scevola or Muzio Scevola is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the Italian composer Francesco Cavalli, with a libretto by Giovanni Faustini. It was based on the story of the Roman hero, Gaius Mucius Scaevola. The opera was first performed at the Teatro San Samuele, Venice on 26 January 1665 and revived in Bologna in 1667.
Rosinda, also known as La Rosinda, is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the Italian composer Francesco Cavalli with a libretto by Giovanni Faustini. It was first performed at the Teatro Sant 'Apollinare, Venice in 1651-02 during Carnival. It appears to have been better received than La Calisto, which was also premiered that year, and was revived in Naples and/or Florence in 1653 under the title Le magie amorose.
Gotham Chamber Opera was a professional opera company located in New York City. The company was founded in 2000 under the name of the Henry Street Chamber Opera by Artistic Director Neal Goren and specialized in producing rarely performed chamber operas from the Baroque era to the present. In 2003, it changed its name to the Gotham Chamber Opera (GCO) after incorporating as an independent 501(c)(3) organization. Its Executive Director was Edward Barnes, who took over from David Bennett. It closed in 2015.
Christophe Dumaux is a French classical countertenor.
Leonardo García Alarcón is an Argentinian conductor specializing in baroque music.
Kacper Filip Szelążek – Polish singer, countertenor.
Vincent Boussard is a French opera and theatre director. First a specialist for early opera, he became known for his versions of romantic operas, sometimes in international collaboration. His staging of Massenet's Manon was presented at the Vilnius National Opera, the San Francisco Opera and the Korea National Opera. His production of Bellini's I puritani was shown at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie and the Oper Frankfurt.
Marcel Beekman is a Dutch operatic tenor currently based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Born in Zwolle, Beekman sang as a boy soprano and studied singing with Frauke Vonk. His first recording appeared in 1979. In 1993 he completed his vocal studies at the Conservatory in Zwolle with Felix Schoonenboom and continued his education with Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.
Kangmin Justin Kim is a Korean-American countertenor specializing in the Baroque, Mozart and contemporary music repertoire.
Joanna Mary Bruno, also known as Joanna Bruno-Clarke, is an American operatic soprano who had an active international career during the 1960s and 1970s. A lyric soprano, she often performed in operas by Giacomo Puccini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
