{"title":"Donne all’opera","year":"2024","label":"Arion Records","composer":"Various","conductor":"Valeria Montanari","ensemble":"Enea Barock Orchestra","role":"Soloist (Alto)","description":"A groundbreaking project celebrating women in Baroque opera, conceived by contralto Francesca Ascioti and featuring the all-female ENEA Barock Orchestra under Valeria Montanari. This collection of arias written for legendary 18th-century divas\u2014including Faustina Bordoni, Francesca Cuzzoni, and Vittoria Tesi\u2014showcases the emotional range of operatic heroines: love, courage, seduction, cruelty, and triumph. Featuring an international cast of soloists including mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux and Nicholas Tamagna performing Benedetto Marcello's witty \"Carissima figlia,\" this recording includes several world premiere recordings of works by Orlandini, Vinci, Giacomelli, Porpora, and other Baroque masters.","press_quotes":[{"quote":"\"The Marcello cantata rounds out the program. It is Nicholas Tamagna who lends his characteristic falsetto to Benati's words. He sustains a low tessitura \u2013 after all, the letter is addressed to 'Vittorina' Tesi \u2013 and soars into soprano range without faltering when evoking the 'friend' (Margherita Zani) or Cuzzoni. Sometimes whining, sometimes emphatic, nasal, sharp-tongued, pathetic or cheerful, Tamagna perfectly measures his effects and captures all the wit of this musical jest...\"","source":"Forum Op\u00e9ra (2024)","author":""}],"has_prize":"","prize_name":"\ud83c\udfc6 Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics' Award)","prize_year":"Listed on the Bestenliste 3-2020 (Best List, 3rd Quarter 2020)","prize_url":"","cover":"https:\/\/nicholastamagna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/donne-s-jpg.jpeg","spotify_url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/3qcoGorEit4eInzh4WQj7G","apple_music_url":"https:\/\/classical.music.apple.com\/fr\/album\/1753700622","youtube_music_url":"","tidal_url":"https:\/\/tidal.com\/album\/371133466","purchase_url":"https:\/\/www.prestomusic.com\/classical\/products\/9666671--donne-allopera?srsltid=AfmBOopvAIB6Hd1cNM12ByCnrsmXdDCfdrLM-GILOVnxjHl2yL8TLW7K","purchase_label":"Buy Album"}

{"title":"Sultans of the Opera","year":"2022","label":"","composer":"Various (Baroque)","conductor":"Mehmet C Yesil\u00e7ay","ensemble":"Pera Ensemble","role":"Soloist","description":"Sultans of the Opera explores the fascinating cultural exchange between the Ottoman Empire and European courts through the lens of Baroque and Classical opera. From the diplomatic intrigues of Versailles to the opulent \"Turkish Festivals\" of August the Strong in Dresden, European fascination with the Orient inspired composers like Mozart, Hasse, and Lully to create works featuring sultans, seraglios, and the exotic sounds of Janissary bands. This recording brings together highlights from these alla turca operas\u2014works that oscillated between depicting power-hungry rulers and the sultry atmosphere of the harem\u2014reimagined through the congenial combination of Western Baroque music and classical Turkish art music. Moving beyond mere exoticism, the program reveals the world of the seraglio as it truly was, using music as a universal language to bridge centuries and cultures.","press_quotes":[],"has_prize":"","prize_name":"","prize_year":"","prize_url":"","cover":"https:\/\/nicholastamagna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_5105-1024x1024.jpg","spotify_url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/7l8daU9nd5OoBjKWBQ8h4y","apple_music_url":"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/album\/sultans-of-the-opera-dream-of-the-orient\/1771925024","youtube_music_url":"","tidal_url":"","purchase_url":"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sultans-Opera-Orient-Mehmet-Yesilcay\/dp\/B0FDMBTPN4","purchase_label":"Buy Album"}

{"title":"Un’alma innamorata","year":"2023","label":"Traveling Troubadour Records","composer":"Raphael Fusco","conductor":"Gerd Amelung","ensemble":"I Porporini","role":"Soloist (Alto)","description":"A contemporary cantata commissioned by Nicholas Tamagna and premiered with ensemble I Porporini at the Schlosstheater Celle. Composer Raphael Fusco reimagines the 18th-century text originally set by Handel, fusing Jazz, Blues, Spirituals, and Neapolitan Song with Baroque textures and structures. The work follows an anonymous lover coming to terms with the pains of fidelity, ultimately delivering its timeless moral: \"He who wishes to enjoy life must first learn how to love.\" Hailed at its premiere as \"fireworks in a class of their own\" with \"flashes of jazz, folk and classical scattered between the baroque structures.\"","press_quotes":[],"has_prize":"","prize_name":"","prize_year":"","prize_url":"","cover":"https:\/\/nicholastamagna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Cover-1024x1024.png","spotify_url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/6FMUJbULJRrEhyUvcsGlZv","apple_music_url":"","youtube_music_url":"","tidal_url":"","purchase_url":"","purchase_label":"Buy Album"}

{"title":"Son of England","year":"April 2017","label":"Outhere Records","composer":"Purcell \/ Blow","conductor":"Vincent Dumestre","ensemble":"Le Po\u00e8me Harmonique","role":"Soloist (Alto)","description":"Henry Purcell died on 21 November 1695 at the age of thirty- six. The music he had written for the funeral of Queen Mary only eight months earlier was performed again for his burial service. Soon afterwards, several composers paid tribute to Purcell by writing odes in his memory. Jeremiah Clarke\u2019s homage to \u2018Orpheus Britannicus\u2019 in his Ode on the Death of Henry Purcell is a deeply moving token of the younger composer\u2019s admiration. Alas, Clarke too was destined to die in his prime, and we can only imagine what the destiny of British music might have been if their lives had been prolonged. After an acclaimed production of Dido and Aeneas, Vincent Dumestre and Le Po\u00e8me Harmonique continue their exploration of the world of Purcell and seventeenth-century English music. Constantly keeping an ear out for multiple musical ramifications, from Dowland to Lully by way of the Elizabethan masques, this new programme spotlights the genius of Jeremiah Clarke, whose sadly premature death makes us regret all the marvels he might have produced. Here is a collection of masterpieces coupling two of Purcell\u2019s most popular works with an exceptional discovery.","press_quotes":[{"quote":"In allen Instrumentengruppen ist Le Po\u00e8me Harmonique fabelhaft besetzt; kein Zweifel, dass sich hier eines der f\u00fchrenden europ\u00e4ischen Barockorchester h\u00f6ren l\u00e4sst! Der Chor Les Cris de Paris erg\u00e4nzt diesen farbenreichen Klang auf einem ebenso hohen Niveau. Die S\u00e4ngerinnen und S\u00e4nger sind absolut h\u00f6hen- und verzierungssicher und richten sich sehr einf\u00fchlsam nach Freud bzw. Trauer der Musik.","source":"Kulturradio RBB","author":"Bernhard Schrammek"}],"has_prize":"","prize_name":"","prize_year":"","prize_url":"","cover":"https:\/\/nicholastamagna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bildschirmfoto-2023-06-18-um-22.43.10.png","spotify_url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/5Iz25lFfnPvMEdwqsUzQgi","apple_music_url":"https:\/\/classical.music.apple.com\/us\/album\/1571727642","youtube_music_url":"","tidal_url":"","purchase_url":"https:\/\/outhere-music.com\/en\/albums\/son-england","purchase_label":"Buy Album"}

{"title":"Ring Out","year":"2019","label":"Bright Shiny Things","composer":"Jessica Meyer","conductor":"","ensemble":"Adam Marks, piano","role":"Soloist","description":"A world-premiere recording of original compositions by violist and composer Jessica Meyer, whose work The Strad has called \"fierce and lyrical.\" The album features \"Seasons of Basho,\" a haunting four-movement song cycle setting master haiku poet Matsuo Basho's verses for countertenor, viola, and piano\u2014with Nicholas Tamagna's extraordinary voice exploring themes of discovery, longing, loss, and loneliness across the seasons. The album culminates in the title track \"Ring Out, Wild Bells,\" recorded inside The Tank, an abandoned water vessel turned resonant music venue in Colorado, featuring Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. Debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart.","press_quotes":[{"quote":"\"Pianist Adam Marks plays a solitary note to open Seasons of Basho, answered by shuddering scraps of melody from Meyer\u2019s viola. Marks\u2019s piano and the extraordinary countertenor voice of Nicholas Tamagna announce that \u201cSpring\u201d has sprung, along with tears of loneliness. \u201cSummer\u201d consists mostly of a shuffling viola solo, sonic dry heat; when the piano burbles to life, Tamagna speaks. The singer\u2019s beautiful vibrato and remarkable timbre at high pitch make his reading of \u201cAutumn,\u201d a soaring slow movement, glow. Marks\u2019s piano becomes a bell, tolling in and then, wonderfully, out of sync.\"","source":"I CARE IF YOU LISTEN","author":"Nick Stevens"},{"quote":"\"In Seasons of Basho, countertenor Nicholas Tamagna mesmerises Meyer and pianist Adam Marks with moments of golden silence among his unwaveringly lovely sweet tones, using the cyclical changing of the year as a metaphor for the highs and lows of obsessive love.\"","source":"Deutsche Grammaphone","author":""},{"quote":"\"Seasons of Basho is a four-song cycle for countertenor (the excellent Nicholas Tamagna), viola (Meyer), and piano (Adam Marks). The four poems \u2013 Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter \u2013 are set to texts by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bash\u014d that examine the ups and downs of love and all its vicissitudes.\"","source":"Rafael's Music Notes","author":""},{"quote":"\"Throughout the work, Meyer and pianist Marks draw bold emotional arcs, but it's the ultra-expressive singing of Tamagna that makes the strongest mark. His is anything but a polite, genteel performance.\"","source":"Textura","author":""}],"has_prize":"","prize_name":"","prize_year":"","prize_url":"","cover":"https:\/\/nicholastamagna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Ring-Cover-square.png","spotify_url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/3DnzWEMYUR9EPpUfbbhBke","apple_music_url":"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/album\/ring-out\/1475085016","youtube_music_url":"","tidal_url":"","purchase_url":"https:\/\/www.brightshiny.ninja\/ring-out","purchase_label":"Buy Album"}

{"title":"\u00a1Sacabuche!","year":"2015","label":"ATMA Classique","composer":"Various","conductor":"Linda Pearse","ensemble":"\u00a1Sacabuche! Ensemble","role":"Soloist (Alto)","description":"Early 17th-century Italian motets with dedicated trombone parts are the focus of this debut ATMA album by \u00a1Sacabuche! Ensemble. Directed by Canadian trombonist Linda Pearse, these works document the growing 17th-century tendency towards naming particular instruments and composing idiomatic parts for them. The trombones don't just double the voices\u2014they serve a continuo role, providing harmonic texture to the moving vocal lines, and sometimes even serve as an additional wordless choir. This recording represents the culmination of seventeen years of research, publication, performance, and pedagogy by Linda Pearse, who has been collecting 17th-century Italian sacred motets with dedicated trombone parts since 1997. A critical edition of this music was published by A-R Editions in 2014.","press_quotes":[{"quote":"This early music sackbut and vocal ensemble knows this repertoire well \u2014 even if the listener doesn't. Francesco Usper, Gasparo Casati, and Stefano Pasino aren't familiar even to many baroque music aficionados \u2014 but they should be. The music on this recording is all well-constructed and tuneful. And impeccably played. \u2b50\u2b50\u2b50\u2b50\u2b50","source":"Amazon (UK)","author":""},{"quote":"'Sacabuche' are a sackbut and vocal ensemble that specialise in little-known repertoire for baroque trombones, organ and voice. This is their first released album, and it's a winner. I heard some tracks off the cd on the radio, and was instantly impelled to buy this cd; the music is sublime, and the performances stunning.","source":"Amazon (Canada)","author":""},{"quote":"Une petite merveille \u00e0 avoir dans sa discoth\u00e8que! Des motets exhum\u00e9s d'archives o\u00f9 ils \u00e9taient vou\u00e9s \u00e0 l'oubli, ramen\u00e9s \u00e0 la vie d'une mani\u00e8re brillante, l\u00e9g\u00e8re, sensible et profonde par des artistes engag\u00e9s et investis! Une vraie r\u00e9ussite!\r\n(Translation: \"A little marvel to have in your record collection! Motets exhumed from archives where they were destined for oblivion, brought back to life in a brilliant, light, sensitive and profound way by committed and invested artists! A real success!\")","source":"Amazon (French Reviewer)","author":""},{"quote":"Every work on this release specifically calls for trombones as part of the continuo. And the trombones don't just double the voices. They also serve a continuo role, providing harmonic texture to the moving vocal lines. And sometimes even serve as an additional wordless choir.","source":"WTJU 91.1 FM (September 21, 2016)","author":""}],"has_prize":"","prize_name":"","prize_year":"","prize_url":"","cover":"https:\/\/nicholastamagna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Sacabuche.jpg","spotify_url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/6DnRgVmyhFpmdHdT1RtFM8","apple_music_url":"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/gb\/album\/17th-century-italian-motets\/1033592621","youtube_music_url":"","tidal_url":"","purchase_url":"","purchase_label":"Buy Album"}