GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. -- In the Baroque opera "Niobe, Queen of Thebes" by Agostino Steffani, the differences between the rustics, the royals and the gods are blurred. Characters regularly float down ...

With its ravishing June production of Agostino Steffani’s 1688 opera, Niobe, Queen of Thebes, the Boston Early Music Festival has confirmed its unique and invaluable role within the early music ...

Critic Lloyd Schwartz welcomes the opera star's new album, Mission, which breathes new life into the work of Italian composer Agostino Steffani.... Cecilia Bartoli's New 'Mission' Unearths Baroque ...

The examination of neglected Baroque operas has produced some rare discoveries, and this forgotten masterpiece by a predecessor of Handel is a fine example. Steffani was a priest and diplomat in ...

What theatrical capital there is in the miserable little tale of Queen Niobe is not immediately obvious. The story crops up in The Iliad four pages from the end. Achilles summons up the sorrowful ...

The Boston Early Music Festival presented a marvelous and sumptuous production of Agostino Steffani’s “Niobe, Queen of Thebes,” Friday night at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. For Gazette music ...

The award-winning soprano uncovers the music of an Italian composer on her new album, Mission. Cecilia Bartoli's Latest 'Mission' Rediscovers Agostino Steffani Cecilia Bartoli has a passion for ...

One of the many pleasures offered by intrepid early music organizations is the view they offer into the accidents of history, a chance to look past the canon and contemplate why certain composers, ...

Bartoli has an astonishing capacity for both vocal fireworks (rare for a mezzo-soprano) and warm, delicate lyricism, and they alternate in a startling way on this recording. She gets to sing the same ...