Sony Classical: Sonya Yoncheva — Rebirth (Cappella Mediterranea, Leonardo García Alarcón) — Audio CD

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: Sony Classical
• Artist: Sonya Yoncheva (soprano)
• Ensemble: Cappella Mediterranea
• Conductor: Leonardo García Alarcón (harpsichord & organ)
• UPC: 194398240220
• Catalog Number: 19439824022
• Release Year: 2021
• Genre: Classical
• Style: Early music, Baroque vocal, world/folk crossover

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 1
• Tracks: 18
• Made in the EU
• Condition: Factory Sealed (New)

Overview

Rebirth is Sonya Yoncheva stepping away from the grand opera stage and into something more intimate. The Bulgarian soprano builds a programme that runs from Monteverdi, Stradella, and Cavalli through Spanish song, a Bulgarian folk melody, and — closing the album — an ABBA tune. It sounds like an unlikely mix on paper. In her hands it holds together as one continuous arc about loss, longing, and renewal.

The early-music backbone is real, not decorative. Yoncheva sings alongside Cappella Mediterranea under Leonardo García Alarcón, who also plays harpsichord and organ. The period-instrument textures give the whole thing a clean, lit-from-within quality that suits her voice closely.

What makes it land is the sequencing. A Bulgarian folk song sits beside Dowland; a Strozzi lament leads toward Ferrabosco; the ABBA finale arrives feeling earned rather than gimmicky. Music that, in the words of one review, "moves you to tears."

Interesting Facts

• Sonya Yoncheva was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1981, and rose to international fame through the Operalia competition before becoming a fixture at the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala.
• The album deliberately spans four centuries, opening with 17th-century Italian and Spanish repertoire and ending with ABBA's "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room."
• Leonardo García Alarcón and his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea are among the most acclaimed early-music interpreters working today, known for rediscovering forgotten Baroque scores.
• Track 10, "Zableyalo mi agănce," is a traditional Bulgarian folk song — a nod to Yoncheva's roots placed among the European art-song repertoire.
• Barbara Strozzi, represented here by "L'Eraclito amoroso," was one of the most published composers of her era — and a rare woman composer of 17th-century Venice.

Track Listing

1. Alessandro Stradella — Queste lagrime e sospiri
2. Claudio Monteverdi — O rosetta, che rosetta
3. Francesco Cavalli — Ed è pur vero … Luci mie, voi che miraste
4. Orlando Gibbons — The Silver Swan 5–6. Claudio Monteverdi — Voglio di vita uscir
5. José Marín — Ojos, pues me desdeñáis
6. Leonardo García Alarcón — Y a tus plantas Nisea
7. Simón Díaz — Pasaje del olvido
8. Bulgarian Folk Song — Zableyalo mi agănce
9. Francesco Cavalli — L'Egisto: Sinfonia della notte
10. Claudio Monteverdi — Oblivion soave
11. Barbara Strozzi — L'Eraclito amoroso
12. Santiago de Murcia / Diego Fernández de Huete — Tarantela española
13. Alfonso Ferrabosco II — Hear me, O God
14. John Dowland — Come again, sweet love doth now invite
15. Tomás de Torrejón y Velazco — No hay que decir el primor
16. ABBA — Like an Angel Passing Through My Room

(Track timings are not printed on the packaging, so I've left them out rather than estimate them. Send a photo of the booklet or disc face if the timings are listed and I'll add them.)

Publishers

Released by Sony Classical in 2021 (Sony Music Entertainment, ℗ & © 2021). Distributed by Sony Music Entertainment International Services GmbH, Gütersloh, Germany. LC 06868. Made in the EU.

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