L'arte Del Mondo & Werner Ehrhardt - Gluck: La Clemenza di Tito (2014)

L'arte del mondo presents the world premiere recording of: La Clemenza di Tito by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787). The world premiere recording of a masterpiece of the 'opera seria', perfectly timed for the 300th birthday of Gluck (July 2nd).

The opera is starring countertenor Valer Sabadus - one of opera's most exciting newcomers - now exclusively signed to Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, a division of Sony Classical. Christoph Willibald Gluck, widely known for fundamentally reforming the 'opera seria' wrote some of the greatest and exemplary masterpieces of this great genre before he started his famous reform of the opera. This makes this work a fascinating and enlightening piece in the puzzle for the evolution of opera and the eminent character Gluck. Gluck's setting of La Clemenza was first performed in Naples in 1752, ten years before his first reform opera.

‘La Clemenza di Tito’ is an exemplary 'opera seria' and a masterpiece of this genre, based on a libretto by the famous Pietro Metastasio. Metastasio’s libretti have been set to music more than any other writer, ever! For example, the libretto of ‘La Clemenza di Tito’ has been set to music 40 times. This world premiere recording by the ensemble l’arte del mondo imposingly shows the exceptional skills of one of the most influential opera composers of all time and reveals a rather unknown side of this outstanding visionary.

The orchestra l’arte del mondo is rooted in the Early Music tradition, but also plays on modern instruments with the same passion, performing repertoire that goes up to the Romantic period. Since it was founded, the ensemble has been invited to appear at many major festivals and concert series such as the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele, the Bonn Beethoven Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival and the Sanssouci Music Festival in Potsdam. l’arte del mondo has also played at such illustrious venues as Konzerthaus Berlin, the Cité de la musique in Paris, the Düsseldorf Tonhalle, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and Munich's Herkulessaal.