Telemann: Miriways (2-CD) - André Morsch

Composer: Georg Philipp Telemann
Artists: André Morsch, Robin Johannsen, Sophie Karthäuser, Lydia Teuscher, Michael Nagy, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Anett Fritsch, Dominik Köninger, Paul McNamara, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Conductor: Bernard Labadie
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Pentatone
CD Release Date: May 8, 2020

Pentatone presents Telemann’s rarely-performed opera Miriways (1728) with a stellar cast and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin conducted by Bernard Labadie. Star vocalists such as André Morsch (Miriways), Robin Johannsen (Sophi), Sophie Karthäuser (Bemira), Lydia Teuscher (Nisibis) and Michael Nagy (Murzah) offer a string of beautiful baroque arias and scenes in this German-language opera.

Miriways is a piece about love, duty and truthfulness, and was based on political events in Afghanistan and Persia that made headlines in European newspapers, demonstrating the eighteenth-century fascination for the Orient. The opera was recorded live during the Telemann Festival Hamburg in 2017. The Akademie für Alte Musik is generally seen as one of the best period-instrument ensembles of today.