Bejun Mehta / Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin / René Jacobs CHE PURO CIEL The Rise Of Classical Opera

 Bejun Mehta possess a large operatic repertoire which comprises, among many others, most of the Händel protagonists for his Fach, including Orlando, Giulio Cesare, Tamerlano, Andronico, Bertarido, Rinaldo and Guido, Farnace (Mozart Mitridate), Oberon (Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Masha (Peter Eötvös Three Sisters). In October 2008, Bejun Mehta added to his repertoire the role of Orfeo (Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice) under René Jacobs to cheering crowds at Theater an der Wien, where in the same season he also appeared in Claus Guth’s staging of Handel’s Messiah.

In concert, Bejun Mehta regularly appears with recital partner Julius Drake and performs with major orchestras and ensembles, including the Freiburger Baroque Orchestra, the Akademie für Alte Musik, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Les Talens Lyriques, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies, under such conductors as René Jacobs, Ivor Bolton, Marc Minkowski, Sir Charles Mackerras, Harry Bicket, Christophe Rousset, and Zubin Mehta.

In the famous Preface to Alceste (1767), Christoph Willibald Gluck and his librettist Ranieri de' Calzabigi posited a new direction for opera. They spoke of moving beyond Baroque forms, of striving for a new naturalism in opera. They wanted, in Calzabigi's lovely phrase, to liberate the language of the heart. Taken from the height of this Reform period, the arias on this disc reveal composers exploring and experimenting, at struggle and at play, as they create the new forms that bring to opera the noble simplicity of the Classical era.