Alessandro Scarlatti: Christmas at the Bethlehem of the West. Music from Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. Carlotta Colombo, Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri & Giulio Prandi

• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 - 1725): Messa per il Santissimo Natale:
• 1 Scarlatti: Messa per il Santissimo Natale: I. Kyrie 03:56
• 2 Scarlatti: Messa per il Santissimo Natale: II. Gloria 10:11
• 3 Scarlatti: Messa per il Santissimo Natale: III. Credo 07:21
• 4 Scarlatti: Messa per il Santissimo Natale: IV. Sanctus 01:13
• 5 Scarlatti: Messa per il Santissimo Natale: V. Agnus Dei 03:36
• Beata Mater:
• 6 Scarlatti: Beata Mater 03:58
• Non so più qual m'ingombra, H. 476 "Cantata pastorale":
• 7 Scarlatti: Non so più qual m'ingombra, H. 476 "Cantata pastorale": I. Recitativo. Non so più qual m'ingombra 02:45
• 8 Scarlatti: Non so più qual m'ingombra, H. 476 "Cantata pastorale": II. Aria. Che sarà? Chi a me lo dice? 05:00
• 9 Scarlatti: Non so più qual m'ingombra, H. 476 "Cantata pastorale": III. Recitativo. È nato al fin mi dice 01:12
• 10 Scarlatti: Non so più qual m'ingombra, H. 476 "Cantata pastorale": IV. Aria pastorale. Nacque col Gran Messia 07:14
• O magnum mysterium:
• 11 Scarlatti: O magnum mysterium 06:19
• Giovanni Giorgi: Messa per la Notte di Natale:
• 12 Giorgi: Messa per la Notte di Natale: I. Kyrie 02:25
• 13 Giorgi: Messa per la Notte di Natale: II. Gloria 04:22
• 14 Giorgi: Messa per la Notte di Natale: III. Credo 06:14
• 15 Giorgi: Messa per la Notte di Natale: IV. Sanctus 00:55
• 16 Giorgi: Messa per la Notte di Natale: V. Agnus Dei 02:29
• Total Runtime 01:09:10

Info for Alessandro Scarlatti: Christmas at the Bethlehem of the West. Music from Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome.

In the heart of Baroque Rome, the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is the principal Marian sanctuary of the Eternal City. For centuries it has guarded not only the relics of Jesus’s cradle and swaddling-clothes, but also the celebrated marble Nativity Scene by Arnolfo di Cambio (1291), the first of its kind in the history of art, thus earning it the title of “Bethlehem of the West”.

Here, in 1707, Alessandro Scarlatti was employed as maestro di cappella. Though a brief appointment – it lasted little more than a year – it was long enough to leave a deep impression, above all on the repertoire for Christmas, which was celebrated in the basilica with particular solemnity.

For the 300th anniversary of the composer’s death, Giulio Prandi and Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri dedicate their fifth album for Arcana to Scarlatti’s unique, splendid music for a Roman Christmas.

Carlotta Colombo, soprano
Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri
Giulio Prandi, conductor

Carlotta Colombo
began her singing training at the age of 16. After graduating in Opera Singing from the Conservatorio di Musica in Como, she dedicated herself to the Baroque repertoire under the guidance of Roberto Balconi. She also gained a first-class honours degree in Philosophy from the University of Milan.

A finalist in the 2022 International Cesti Singing Competition for Baroque Opera in Innsbruck, Carlotta made her debut in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (La Musica and Proserpina) at the age of 23; she subsequently collaborated with numerous early music ensembles including Il Pomo d’Oro, Europa Galante, Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco and the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble.

Other important operatic debuts followed shortly, such as the roles of Fortuna and Drusilla in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea in a George Petrou/Ted Huffman production at Oper Köln and La Musica and Euridice in L’Orfeo under Gianluca Capuano at both the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and Salzburger Festspiele. Carlotta was Maddalena in Handel’s La Resurrezione for the Teatro Comunale Ferrara and Melissa in Amadigi di Gaula by the same composer for the Sofia National Opera.

In 2023, she made her Scala house debut with I Cameristi della Scala conducted by Giulio Prandi.

Carlotta recently embarked on a European tour alongside Joyce DiDonato and Il Pomo d’Oro led by Maxim Emelyanychev, performing Carissimi’s Jephte and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Barbican Centre in London, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. An album of the concert will be released on the Erato label.

Under the baton of Ottavio Dantone, she perfomed as Amanzio in Vivaldi’s Giustino at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid and Sociedad Filarmónica in Bilbao.

Also active on the concert stage, Carlotta appeared at the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.

Her recordings include Pergolesi’s intermezzo Livietta e Tracollo (Livietta) with the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble (CPO), four little-known pastoral cantatas by the young Handel (Brilliant Classics), Zelenka’s Missa Omnium Sanctorum (Glossa) and Fux’s La Corona d’Arianna (Arcana).

Add to this the recording, with Giulio Prandi, of a programme featuring sacred music for the Naïve Vivaldi Edition and the release of Carlotta’s first solo album “Arianna a Roma” alongside the Italian ensemble Anima & Corpo and Gabriele Pro dedicated to the seventeenth-century repertoire for Roman female singers (Arcana).

Recent and forthcoming engagements include Carlotta’s title role debut in Handel’s Rodelinda under Alessandro Quarta at the Theater Kiel, Cleonilla in Vivaldi’s Ottone in villa at La Fenice, Aristea in a new Giulio Prandi/Fabio Ceresa production of Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade at the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi and Ismene in Pelopida by Girolamo Abos for the Valletta Baroque Festival.

Carlotta will also team up with Ottavio Dantone for a concert dedicated to Scarlatti at the Innsbruck Festival and with Alessandro Quarto for a series of recitals in Rome and Darmstadt.

Giulio Prandi
conducts with the energy of someone who deeply loves music and the curiosity of one who explores its every nuance. In 2003, he founded Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri to give new voice to the 18th-century repertoire. He is regularly invited to major concert halls and collaborates with orchestras and theatres across Europe.

Recent highlights include his debut at Teatro alla Scala with the Cameristi della Scala and Coro Ghislieri, and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor. Prandi also appeared at the Sagra Malatestiana with the Filarmonica Toscanini for Rameau’s Les Incas du Pérou in a production by Anagoor, returned to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam for A. Scarlatti’s Vespro di Santa Cecilia and to the Opéra Grand Avignon for both a recital with Ramón Vargas and Scarlatti’s oratorio La Giuditta. Other engagements embrace the world premiere in modern times of Spontini’s I quadri parlanti, the world premiere of Nicola Campogrande’s De bello gallico at the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi, Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona and at the Daegu Opera House in South Korea. Add to this Carmina Burana and Bach’s St John Passion at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.

As Artistic Director of the GhislieriMusica Association in Pavia which received the 2019 “Premio Abbiati” for “best musical initiative” in Italy, Giulio Prandi pursues ongoing research that has led over the years to the rediscovery of numerous works by composers such as Galuppi, Jommelli, Perez, J. C. Bach, Perti, Durante, Astorga and Leo.

His albums with Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/Sony and Arcana/Outhere Music have received numerous awards, including the 2022 International Classical Music Award (ICMA) and Diapason Découverte. His release of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle on period instruments with Coro Ghislieri has been hailed by the international press as a reference recording.

In the 2025/26 season Giulio Prandi will make his debut at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, return to the Teatro Massimo in Palermo with A. Scarlatti’s Mitridate Eupatore and conduct L’Olimpiade both in Vivaldi’s version – marking his return to the Fondazione Arena di Verona – and in Pergolesi’s version in Jesi. He will also conduct operas by Girolamo Abos and Gluck, several new concert programs and his first Puccini with Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.

A choir professor at the Conservatory of Pavia, Giulio Prandi graduated in orchestral conducting under the guidance of Donato Renzetti. He also holds a degree in mathematics and a diploma in singing. Deeply committed to arts education, he believes in music as a force that educates, unites and speaks to the present. Giulio enjoys hiking in the mountains, reading, and discovering new places and their stories.

Booklet for Alessandro Scarlatti: Christmas at the Bethlehem of the West. Music from Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome.