You may have noticed that there are barely any reviews for opera recordings on this website. There's a good reason for this paucity. You see, opera is a whole world in itself within the scope of classical music, and unless you fully lose yourself within this world, it's difficult to appreciate the intricate number of finer details that make for an outstanding live performance or recording. During my many years in music retail, I've known many opera buffs that were rabid collectors who would follow specific casts of singers from opera to opera, or prefer specific conductors for certain composers, and could tell you instantly which qualities made one recording better than the next. As for myself, I've been too busy pursuing orchestral and/or instrumental classical music to afford the time it would have taken to immerse myself in the opera world. Therefore my lack of expertise in the field doesn't give me licence to write justifiable reviews for opera recordings.

Because of its rarety I felt I should make an exception for this one. This is the world premiere recording of Il Mondo della Luna, the only opera composed by Pedro Antonio Avondano (1714-1782), a Portuguese composer of Italian parentage, born about 35 years after the birth of Antonio Vivaldi. He was known as Portugal's top composer of instrumental music for the royal ballet. As with most operas 'The World on the Moon' is fraught with love, power and jealousy encounters, based on a libretto by Carlo Goldoni. The ensemble of mostly Portuguese musicians and singers on this new recording bring authenticity to its performance. The early music group Os Músicos do Tejo's previous releases on the Naxos label have all been well received. There's an off the cuff, impromptu approach to the way Marco Magalhães leads the proceedings which lends the whole performance the comic effect it calls for. The cast of singers includes Susana Gaspar, Carla Caramujo and Carla Simoes (sopranos), Fernando Guimaraes and Joao Pedro Cabral (tenors), and Luis Rodrigues and Joao Fernandes (basses), who all do full justice to this 1765 musical play sung in Italian. The audio recording itself well captures the various stage positions of the singers in relation to each other, and lends a natural, airy quality to the soundstage, with just the right level of three-dimensional presence.

So opera enthusiasts take note: here is a first recording of a work previously unheard which you can add to your comprehensive collection. Enjoy!