Blandine Staskiewicz Inked Up On Cover Of New Recording

French mezzo-soprano Blandine Staskiewicz releases a new recording in March 2015. The disc, Tempesta, features arias of Vivaldi (Andromeda liberata, La verita in cimento, Griselda, L'Olimpiade), Händel (Agrippina, Radamisto, Serse), Porpora (Carlo il Calvo), and Pergolesi (Adriano in Siria). On the cover, the artist displays her bare back with the title of the album tattooed on her skin. It's a very avant-garde approach for a Baroque recording. "With Tempesta, her first recital disc, mezzo-soprano Blandine Staskiewicz has chosen to venture into the emotional storms and calms beloved of Baroque composers notably Vivaldi and Handel which provided their operatic arias with that intense charge that captivates listeners still. As befits one raised on the tranquil, yet at times tempestuous, Belle-Île-en-Mer, lying off the Brittany coast, Staskiewicz is able to portray a fabulous array of moods to match her vocal beauty. If the Neapolitans Nicola Porpora and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi are each represented on this disc by a single burst of concentrated dramatic feeling, it is to the fiery and tempestuous music of Vivaldi and the more psychological and interiorised offerings of Handel that Blandine Staskiewicz directs her attention in these arie di tempesta. Staskiewicz s control of the depths and heights of the soul are matched by the instrumental accompaniment from Les Ambassadeurs and its director Alexis Kossenko. Blandine Staskiewicz, who has appeared on previous Glossa albums in Lully, Campra and Handel in the company of Hervé Niquet and Fabio Bonizzoni, herself contributes an intriguing note about the genesis of this programme complete with an alluring cover design but it is her wonderfully controlled singing (and expertise in Baroque repertoire) which characterises Tempesta so beguilingly." [Source] Read a biography of Blandine Staskiewicz after the jump. Listen to a sampling of the mezzo-soprano:

Glossa Music Packages Roberta Invernizzi 2-CD Händel Set

Italian Händelian Soprano
(Photo: Bruna Ginammi)

Milanese soprano Roberta Invernizzi studied piano and double bass before focusing on singing. She worked with voice teacher Margaret Heyward to focus on early music repertoire before going on to sing with some of the world's most important conductors including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ivor Bolton, Ton Koopman and Gustav Leonhardt. Important performances in her career are Händel's Rinaldo at Teatro alla Scala, Galuppi's L'Olimpiade at Fenice di Venezia and Mozart's Mass in C minor at the Musikverein in Vienna and Davide Penitente at the Festival Styriarte di Graz with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Recently she has sung at the Salzburg Festival, Lufthansa Festival, Teatro San Carlo, Theatre des Champs Elysees and Teatro Massimo. Her discography includes over 60 recordings for Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI/Virgin, Naïve, Opus 111 and Symphonia, that have won numerous awards including Diapason d'Or de l'année, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grammophone Awards, Schallplatten Preis and a Midem Classical Award. Between 2005-09 the soprano was one of the main artists featured on a project to record the complete Händel cantatas with Fabio Bonizzoni. [Source]

Listen to some samples by going here. To order the new 2-CD set, click here. Complete track listing and album cover art is after the jump.