Prima Classic presents its third release, the complete Opera “La Traviata”, fully recorded in the studio, with a stellar cast: Marina Rebeka sings Violetta Valéry, Charles Castronovo sings Alfredo and George Petean is in the role of Germont. Michael Balke conducts the Latvian Festival Orchestra and the State Choir Latvija.

This is a stunning production, believed to be the first complete recording of the opera for 26 years not based on an existing production, that will surprise the listener for its immediacy and accuracy in both the artistical and technical aspects. Special care has been placed in the audio quality of this album, combining the vitality and freshness of a live performance with the perfection associated with a studio recording.

La Traviata is one of the top three most famous and performed operas worldwide, and Marina Rebeka has been singing the role of Violetta to great acclaim almost every season since 2007. She has performed the role in seventeen different productions of La Traviata, singing in houses such as Teatro alla Scala in Milan, The Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Operá National de Paris, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and the Hamburg State Opera, among many others in Europe, Asia, and the USA.

Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka is one of the leading opera singers of our time and has gained a wide reputation as one of the greatest Verdi, Rossini and Mozart singers in the world. Since her international breakthrough at the Salzburg Festival in 2009 under the baton of Riccardo Muti, Rebeka has been a regular guest at the world’s most prestigious concert halls and opera houses, such as the Teatro alla Scala (Milan), the Opéra National de Paris, the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall (New York), the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (London), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Bavarian State Opera (Munich), the Vienna State Opera and the Musikverein (Vienna), and the Zurich Opera House, among others. In the 2017/18 season, she was named the first ever artist in residence by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester. In December 2016, Rebeka was granted the Order of the Three Stars, the highest award of the Republic of Latvia, for her cultural achievements.

Acclaimed internationally as one of the finest lyric tenors of his generation, Charles Castronovo has sung at most of the world’s leading opera houses, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Berlin State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the San Francisco Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. One of the most sought after Verdian baritones of our time, George Petean appears regularly at the major opera houses in the world, such as the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Zurich Opera House, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Bavarian State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Teatro alla Scala, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and others.

Equally at home in the symphonic and opera repertoire, the young German conductor Michael Balke is quickly gaining international attention for his performances. He regularly accepts invitations to many European countries as well as Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States. Balke was born in Braunschweig and received a full scholarship for his musical education at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano with James Tocco, conducting with Christopher Zimmerman, and chamber music with the Tokyo String Quartet, the LaSalle Quartet, and Menahem Pressler.