CD recording: Duets and arias from 17th c. Venice

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November 2022

The recording sessions are now over - they went really well! It was exhilarating to collaborate with the AAM and Laurence, and we made some really exciting music that I cannot wait to share with you!

Unfortunately, I am still £2000 under budget at the time of this update. Please, help if you can!

I can still offer a private recital at your home for donations above £1000 (if UK/Spain based) and free signed CDs for donations above £50. Thank you!

Love duets and arias from 17th-century Venice.

Recording of an album of love duets and arias with:

Randall Scotting, countertenor

Jorge Navarro Colorado, tenor

Laurence Cummings, harpsichord and music director

Academy of Ancient Music, baroque orchestra

Signum Classics, recording label

This recording will take place in London between the 31st of October and the 2nd of November 2022.

Everything is ready for this project! We have one of the world's most respected baroque music directors, Laurence Cummings, one of the leading baroque orchestras, the Academy of Ancient Music, and one of the most successful record labels in Classical Music.

Out of the total £34,500 that this costs, we have already raised more than £26,000 with contributions from the label and the orchestra, plus private donations of sponsors to the countertenor, Randall. I am also trying to put together the remaining £8500, which I'm hoping to be able to raise from a selected few of my own friends and family. That's why I have created this GoFundMe page so that it is easier to make a donation regardless of your currency or country of residence.

Below you will find more information about the idea behind the recording, which focuses on what LGBTQ love might have been like in the 17th century.

If you are interested in helping this project happen, please donate on this page or ask for my direct bank details. I will be immensely grateful! Anyone who donates will be more than welcome to come to watch and listen during the recording sessions, have their name mentioned in the CD booklet as a sponsor if desired, and of course, have free copies of the CD!

Many thanks in advance,

Jorge

LOVE DUETS AND ARIAS FROM SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY VENICE

Countertenor Randall Scotting and tenor Jorge Navarro Colorado

collaborate with Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music.

Recorded by Signum Classics in London, 31 Oct-2 Nov 2022

What would you sacrifice for love?

There was a time when for many, love demanded more, and it held the threat of persecution, arrest, vilification and losing everything. And yet, for centuries, there have been men risking their lives to compose passionate sonnets to each other, women braving the threat of disgrace to write letters of devotion to one another, and every other loving soul caught between expectation and yearning. This programme is a musical love story that casts away the veil that has hidden queer passion for centuries. Desire, fear, pleasure, desperation, and tenderness are all shared as a universal truth that transforms a troubled history into modern triumph.

Love endured in seventeenth-century Venice, a city that offered a haven to the gay community as well as to artists and musicians of all colours and creeds. Now, almost 400 years later, we reconnect with La Serenissima to proclaim truth out loud in music by Monteverdi, Legrenzi, Stradella, Cavalli, Merula, and others. Conceived for two singers in the same range, a seamless blend of vocal harmony is displayed in this extraordinary music, including three world-premiere arias by the composers Boretti, Melani, and Castrovillari. Also a first, the recording culminates with one of the most beautiful love duets of all time, ‘Pur ti miro’ from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, performed here by two men. Declaring: ‘I am yours; I embrace you; I desire you, oh my idol of love!’, this album is a celebration of endurance, recognition, and acceptance.

MUSIC

Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Legrenzi, Alessandro Stradella, Antonio Boretti, Francesco Sacrati, Tarquinio Merula, Jacopo Melani, Daniele da Castrovillari, and Francesco Cavalli

ALBUM DURATION 72:16

MUSICIANS

Leader/harpsichord & organ Laurence Cummings

Singers (2) Jorge Navarro Colorado, tenor

Randall Scotting, countertenor

Ensemble (9 players) violin (2); viola (2); bass violin (1); lirone (1); harp (1); lutes (2)