Regula Mühlemann - Cleopatra - Baroque Arias (2017) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

For her first Sony Classical album of Mozart arias, the young Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann received fantastic reviews all over the world. She was introduced to an audience of millions in 2016 at the ZDF Advent Concert from the Frauenkirche in Dresden, where she conquered the audience along with the second soloist of the evening, Sonya Yoncheva.

For her second album, the artist profiles the fascinating figure Queen Cleopatra, who appears as a character in more than 80 operas of the 17th and 18th centuries by famous composers such as Vivaldi or Händel, but also a few lesser known composers. Mühlemann has selected some of the most beautiful and well-loved Cleopatra arias and performed them with the outstanding La Folia Baroque Orchestra: the passionate aria “Squarciami pure il seno” from Vivaldi’s hardly known opera Il Tigrane, Handel’s melancholic “Se pietà di me non senti” from the opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto and the virtuoso aria “Tra le procelle assorto” or “Se tu sararai felice” from the opera Antioco il Grande by Giovanni Legrenzi. Other arias come from the operas of Johann Adolf Hasse, Alessandro Scarlatti, Johann Mattheso, and Antonio Sartorio. On this album, Regula Mühlemann succeeds in perfectly embodying the multi-layered persona of Cleopatra in this thrilling music.

„Regula Mühlemanns "technical ability is certainly breathtaking, but she is much more than a nightingale. Her tone is beautiful and well equalized from top to bottom and she is expressive and nuanced in her readings. […] This is an excellent disc with predominantly rarely heard ari-as, well worth adding to every Mozartlover's collection, for the programme as well as for the singing" (MusicWeb)

TRACKLIST

Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759)

1 Cleopatra e Cesare, WV B:I:7: Tra le procelle assorto (Aria) 07:24

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)

2 Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17: Che sento? Oh Dio! (Recitativo) 01:15
3 Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17: Se pietà di me non senti (Aria) 11:00

Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783)

4 Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra: Morte col fiero aspetto (Aria) 04:12
5 Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra: Lascia, Antonio, deh lascia (Recitativo) 01:34
6 Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra: Quel candido armellino (Aria) 11:01

Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690)

7 Antioco il Grande: Se tu sarai felice (Aria) 01:56

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)

8 Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra, H. 121: Antonio, e qual destino (Recitativo) 00:24
9 Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra, H. 121: Vò goder senza contrasto (Aria) 04:52

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

10 La virtù trionfante dell'amore e dell'odio, ovvero il Tigrane, RV 740: Squarciami pure il seno (Aria) 04:08

Johann Mattheson (1681-1746)

11 Die unglücksselige Cleopatra: Mein Leben ist hin (Aria) 03:20
12 Die unglücksselige Cleopatra: Ruhe sanft, geliebter Geist (Aria) 02:55

Antonio Sartorio (1630-1681)

13 Giulio Cesare in Egitto: Quando voglio (Aria) 03:56

PERSONNEL
Regula Mühlemann, soprano
La Folia Barokorchester
Robin Peter Müller, conductor