Planets
With Richard Baker. Pluto - Hades to the Greeks - was the gloomy god who presided over the underworld, but Offenbach depicts him as the life and soul of the party. He gave his name to the most distant and most recently discovered of the planets in the solar system. Music includes:
Rameau Nais (Prelude; Pluto's Aria) John Tomlinson (bass), English Bach Festival Orchestra/Nicholas McGegan Respighi Aretusa
Janet Baker (mezzo), City of London Sinfonia, conductor Richard Hickox
Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie (excerpt) Les Arts Florissants, conductor William Christie
Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld (excerpt)
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, conductor John Owen Edwards
SOUNDING THE CENTURY