Nathalie Stutzmann – Prima Donna | L’Olimpiade – Sinfonia I | Vivaldi

Devoted to Antonio Vivaldi, Prima Donna is the first disc where Nathalie Stutzmann holds the twin roles of singer and conductor with Orfeo 55. In an era when the public acclaimed castrati, Vivaldi the nonconformist preferred the fascinating timbre of female contralti to whom he accorded a place of honour in his operas. With Prima Donna, Nathalie Stutzmann brilliantly illustrates this historic originality by bringing together the most beautiful arias, either famous or unrecorded, that Vivaldi composed for these adored singers. Also, the title “Prima Donna” refers in opera jargon as some sort of diva, or starring female character of an opera, translated literally as “first woman”. Some examples of prima donnas are the character Floria Tosca or the soprano Maria Callas. This album selects different arias and other extracts from different Vivaldi operas. Nathalie Stutzmann is a French contralto singer and conductor, remarkable for his deep and powerful voice, who has harvested great success in Baroque and chamber music. She is a total pioneer and earned her first recognitions with Schubert liedern (or German classical songs) for male voice and German operas, that often require heavier, more strong voices to endure the length of such and the dark personalities that often display the characters in comparison with Italian operas. She has worked with the very best of European orchestras and founded her own in 2009: Orfeo 55, sadly disappeared now from the classical panorama.