Together with librettist John Caird, O’Regan has designed The Phoenix as an opera within an opera, exploring Da Ponte’s life in the US, and as such providing a fascinating perspective on America as a nation of immigrants. The young and elder Da Ponte are created by Luca Pisaroni and Thomas Hampson, respectively. Music director Patrick Summers conducts the Houston Grand Opera.
Luca Pisaroni has sung the role of Claudio in concert and in the opera house with Maxim Emelyanychev, Chief Conductor of Il Pomo d'Oro. Joining them on this recording is a cast of established and rising stars that includes Joyce DiDonato, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Franco Fagioli, Elsa Benoit and Jakub Józef Orlinski.
With this Rossini recording, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and its Music Director Gustavo Gimeno continue their acclaimed PENTATONE series of composer portraits. On this album they work together with organist Tobias Berndt, the Wiener Singakademie and a quartet of outstanding soloists: Eleonora Buratto (soprano), Sara Mingardo (mezzo-soprano), Kenneth Tarver (tenor) and Luca Pisaroni (bass).