Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Steffani: Niobe

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Yet another important but neglected opera composer of the Italian baroque is finally getting his due in recordings. Not one, but two new recordings have appeared in the catalog of Agostino Steffani's Niobe, Regina di Tebe (1688).

Born in Italy in 1654, Steffani lived a fairly long life, dying in 1728, but by the dawn of the eighteenth century he had given up writing music entirely to pursue a career in diplomatic service in Central Europe. Niobe was composed for the opera theater of the royal Bavarian court at Munich. (Steffani's Italian operas were particularly popular in Germany; they influenced the development of German baroque opera.)

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden staged Niobe in 2010. The 2015 Opus Arte release lays claim to being the world premiere recording of Niobe. (Following hard on its heels is the Erato release of Niobe with Paul Odette leading the singers and players of the Boston Early Music Festival.) The Covent Garden production has Thomas Hengelbrock conducting the Baltasar-Neumann Ensemble of period instrumentalists. Starring in the singing cast in the title role as the Queen of Thebes is the much esteemed French soprano Veronique Gens. It's her voice you will hear today in the Covent Garden/Opus Arte recording on three compact discs.