En travesti

Anna Bonitatibus is one of the most successful mezzo-sopranos of our time. On her new album entitled "en travesti", together with the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Corrado Rovaris, she presents the most famous and important arias written over the past three hundred years for women acting in male roles on the opera stage: so-called "trouser roles". The fifteen arias begin with Handel and Vivaldi, then go on to include works by Gluck and Mozart, the Italians Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, the French opera composers Meyerbeer, Offenbach and Massenet, the Verists Mascagni and Puccini, as well as Ravel and Richard Strauss; and the programme concludes with a song from the film musical "Victor/Victoria". The "trouser role", i.e. the woman performing in male dress, has always been a popular phenomenon in spoken as well as musical theatre. The notion that it served only to gradually replace parts written for castrati – whose tradition ended in the first half of the 19th century for humanitarian and aesthetic reasons - is a commonly accepted one but is not, in fact, correct. Even during the heyday of castrati, men were repeatedly portrayed by women en travesti, and these parts were performed by famous female singers. On her album, Anna Bonitatibus exclusively sings arias that were originally written for women. She thus provides a whole new insight into the 'trouser role' and gives us impressions of how these fascinating and astonishingly varied numbers from three centuries of musical and operatic history must have sounded. There are famous and lesser-known opera titles here, popular musical numbers and also genuine rediscoveries - from Baroque opera to Italian bel canto, all the way to songs from contemporary musicals. It's an impressive concept, and lots of fun. The studio recordings by the Bayerischer Rundfunk were made in the summer of 2016, and have now been released on BR-KLASSIK. ? Opera arias written exclusively for 'trouser roles' as well as songs from musicals – all of it covering three centuries of music history ? Famous arias and numerous interesting new discoveries ? Professional studio recordings by the Bayerischer Rundfunk in July 2016 ? Accompanied by the Munich Radio Orchestra under the Italian conductor Corrado Rovaris