Ermonela Jaho and Anthony Roth Costanzo Lead Week's Opera CD Releases

Opera Rara has released the world premiere recording of Puccini's final 1921 version of "La rondine," conducted by Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers. Ermonela Jaho, Opera Rara's Artist Ambassador, sings one of her signature roles, Magda de Civry. The recording was made in the week before a concert performance at London's Barbican in December 2025, which marked the first time Puccini's complete third version had been heard in almost a century.

That release anchors a remarkably crowded week of CD and DVD issues, spanning world premieres, rare repertoire and a Nonesuch debut from a star countertenor.

What does this week's slate actually contain?

Puccini: La rondine (1921 version) — Opera Rara's Rizzi-Jaho recording, described above, is the historical headline.

Missy Mazzoli: The Listeners — Lyric Opera of Chicago, led by General Director John Mangum and Music Director Enrique Mazzola, presents the world premiere recording of Mazzoli's opera with librettist Royce Vavrek, based on an original story by Jordan Tannahill.

Anthony Roth Costanzo: Countertenor — Costanzo makes his Nonesuch Records debut with ten tracks conducted by Daniel Schlosberg. The album is a survey of falsetto singing (the male vocal technique using the upper register) and ranges widely: a world premiere recording of a new piece by Osvaldo Golijov; arias by Philip Glass, Mozart, Vivaldi and Monteverdi; a traditional Hawaiian song; a Dowland early Baroque song; a Renaissance ditty by Thomas Morley; the Frankie Valli Four Seasons tune "Walk Like a Man"; and a Klaus Nomi-inspired take on John Madera and David White's "You Don't Own Me."

Which rare operas are resurfacing?

Léo Delibes: Jean de Nivelle — Palazzetto Bru Zane releases the Opéra-comique (a genre mixing sung and spoken passages) with Cyrille Dubois, Mélissa Petit, Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, Tassis Christoyannis, Juliette Mey, Adrien Fournaison, François Rougier and Jean-Philippe McClish. György Vashegyi leads the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Hungarian National Choir.

Baldassare Galuppi: L'Uomo Femina — Eva Zaïcik, Lucile Richardot, Victoire Bunel, Anas Séguin, Victor Sicard and François Rougier star, with Le Poème Harmonique under Vincent Dumestre.

Michele Carafa: Masaniello, ou Le Pêcheur napolitain — Naxos releases this rarely performed work by Carafa, a student of Cherubini, with Catherine Trottmann, Luis Magallanes, Juan José Medina, Mert Süngü and Nathanaël Tavernier. Nicola Pascoli conducts the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.

Kurt Weill: Street Scene — Capriccio releases the two-act Broadway show by Weill, Elmer Rice and Langston Hughes, featuring Giselle Allen, Robert Hayward, Gillene Butterfield, Alex Banfield, Michelle Andrews, Quirijn de Lang and Rodney Vubya. James Holmes conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North.

What's new in choral and contemporary music?

Matthew Aucoin: Music for New Bodies — DACAMERA Editions issues the premiere recording of Aucoin's work, part opera and part vocal symphony. Aucoin, collaborating with fellow MacArthur "genius" Peter Sellars (who directed the first production), adapted the libretto from poems by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jorie Graham. The recording features American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), Sandbox Percussion, and singers Kathryn Lewek, Meryl Dominguez, Megan Moore, Paul Appleby and Evan Hughes.

Eric Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour — Decca Classics releases the Grammy winner's hour-long meditative work for choir, cello, piano and live electronics, recorded with the Eric Whitacre Singers.

The Crossing: Besieged — Donald Nally's ensemble releases its 42nd album, examining human life, aging and the mysteries of the cosmos, with music by Stacy Garrop, Robert Maggio and Christopher Jessup.

Andrew Balfour: Nôtinikêw — Dead of Winter, directed by Mel Braun, records the work for Leaf Music. It honors the Indigenous soldiers of the 107th Timber Wolf (Winnipeg) Battalion who served in the First World War.

Missa pro defunctis a sei voci – Mottetti — Zeer releases the album with the Rossini Chamber Choir under Simone Baiocchi, in one of the most intense sacred pieces of the 1900s.

Orazio Benevolo: Missa Si Deus Pro Nobis, Magnificat — Alpha Classics releases the polychoral mass (scored for multiple spatially separated choirs) with Le Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet, complemented by works of Monteverdi, Frescobaldi and Palestrina.

The Tallis Scholars: Live in Venice — Peter Phillips's ensemble, founded in 1973, releases a 1-CD/1-Blu-ray set recorded in 2017 at the Basilica di San Marco, with music by Monteverdi, Palestrina, Lotti and Allegri.

Ensemble Altera: The Four Elements — Christopher Lowrey's ensemble, on PENTATONE, travels through wind, earth, water, fire and quintessence — the ancient idea of a fifth essence — with music by Byrd, Stanford, Ešenvalds, Whitacre, Lauridsen, Owain Park, Rebecca Dale and others.

Kaija Saariaho — Ondine releases Saarikoski Songs, Vista and Three Preludes, featuring soprano Anu Komsi and organist Marzi Nyman with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

Andris Nelsons — He and the Wiener Philharmoniker launch their complete Mahler symphony cycle for Deutsche Grammophon.

William Hite: Winterreise — The tenor, with pianist Kayo Iwama, records Schubert's song cycle for Navona Records.

What does this change for listeners? Two world premiere opera recordings — Puccini's final thoughts on La rondine and Mazzoli's The Listeners — plus a first complete Mahler cycle launch make this a week where the catalogue genuinely shifts, and the December 2025 Barbican performance suggests more historically grounded Puccini projects may follow from Opera Rara.