A cura di F. Della Seta - Riduzione per canto e pianoforte-Ricordi the well-known printer of classical opera presents the works of the great opera composers in its Critical Edition practical series. These revised definitive scores are produced by using all the currently available sources ranging from the original autographs to printed editions in line with strict philological and critical criteria. Each edition has a brief introduction providing the historical context for the opera in question. This series combines the rigour of a critical approach and a practical easy-to-follow editorial lay-out. The hidden sadness and frustration of living as a moral outcast the attempt to simulate innocence infrivolous living and the desperate search for relief from pain and anguish the destruction of all hope in an unrealistic love affair... this is Violetta Valery. Verdi penetrated the tormented sensitivity of her soul as he visualized her in his music transforming her individual fate into a universal representation of human suffering. His compassion for her however met with bigoted censure: the bourgeois public scandalized by the presence of a kept woman as a character on the stage gave the opera an icy reception at its premiere in Venice (Teatro La Fenice 6 March 183). Certainly an inferior cast for the occasion did little to help. Only the following year when La Traviata was revived for another production in Venice (Teatro San Benedetto) did the tale of Violetta manage to overcome this prejudice and win the unconditional esteem it so deserves.

This opening portion from Donizetti's Gloria is an exuberant somewhat operatic choral. A wonderful masterwork from the Romantic era this dramatic energetic chorus has been made accessible with easy unison and part-writing and a simplified accompaniment.

Another Look at Harmony Part 4 was written while Glass was working on Einstein on the Beach and it is easy to hear similarities between the two works. In Harmony the Voices use solfege and nonsense syllables where in Einsteinrecognizable words are sometimes set non-narratively. There are similar harmonic progressions that the two pieces share though it is less predictable in Harmony. In both works Glass takes all the time he needs to explore histheme. Another Look at Harmony requires approximately one hour to perform with intensity building through the many repetitions over time.American composer Philip Glass is widely known as one of the most celebrated influentialand prolific of the modern composers. He is frequently referred to as a minimalist though he prefers to call himself a composer of ‘music with repetitive structures.’ His operas among them the renowned Einstein On The Beach are performed across the globe and he has created work for small and large ensembles film and experimental theatre and founded his own performing group The Philip Glass Ensemble.