Rival Queens Simone Kermes & Vivica Genaux

• Giuseppe Arena (1713-1784): La clemenza di Tito
• 1La clemenza di Tito: Come potesti, oh dio03:19
• Giovanni Battista Bononcini (1670-1747): Astianatte
• 2Astianatte: Spera che questo cor02:51
• Johann Adolph Hasse (1699–1783): Cleofide
• 3Cleofide: 'Se mai più sarò geloso'06:18
• Geminiano Giacomelli (1692-1740): Scipione in Cartagine nuova
• 4Scipione in Cartagine nuova: Villanel la nube estiva10:18
• Domenico Natale Sarro (1679-1744): Lucio Vero
• 5Lucio Vero: Al valor di Borea armato05:21
• Johann Adolph Hasse: Artaserse
• 6Artaserse: Va' tra le selve ircane03:23
• Leonardo Vinci (1690-1730): Ifigenia in Tauride
• 7Ifigenia in Tauride: L'onda chiara che dal fonte04:56
• Nicola Antonio Porpora (1686-1768): Adelaide
• 8Adelaide: Nobil onda04:54
• Attilio Ariosti (1666-1729): Lucio Vero
• 9Lucio Vero: Vorreste o mie pupille07:46
• Nicola Antonio Porpora: Arianna in Naxo
• 10Arianna in Naxo: In amoroso petto05:20
• Giovanni Battista Bononcini: Astianatte
• 11Astianatte: Svenalo, traditor02:17
• Johann Adolph Hasse: Issipile
• 12Issipile: Impallidisce in campo04:41
• Leonardo Leo (1694-1744): Ciro riconosciuto
• 13Ciro riconosciuto: Benché l'augel s'asconda05:38
• Antonio Pollarolo (1676-1746): Lucio Papirio dittatore
• 14Lucio Papirio dittatore: Padre amoroso06:20
• Johann Adolph Hasse: Artaserse
• 15Artaserse: Tu vuoi ch'io viva o cara06:33
• Total Runtime01:19:55

Info for Rival Queens

The Album explores the artistic legacies of the two legendary singers (Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni) and the heights of inspiration to which their rivalry moved the leading composers of their era.

A thrilling recording, in which Simone Kermes and Vivica Genaux sing arias and duets composed at the height of the rivalry between Eighteenth-Century singers Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni.

June 1727 was witness to the mother of all theater scandals. Francesca Cuzzoni (alias Simone Kermes) and Faustina Bordoni (alias Vivica Genaux), arch-rivals and both superstars of Italian opera, had a fight on stage at London’s Haymarket Theatre.

Featuring music by Bononcini, Händel, Leo, Lotti, Pollarolo, Porpora, and Porta, most of which has not been heard since the careers of Bordoni and Cuzzoni, Rival Queens explores the artistic legacies of the two legendary singers and the heights of inspiration to which their much-fêted competition moved the important composers of the era.

Simone Kermes, soprano
Vivica Genaux, mezzo-soprano

Simone Kermes
studied under Professor Helga Forner at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig, her home town. She completed her studies and two additional courses of study with distinction. She is the holder of many prizes awarded at international singing competitions.

Opera performances have taken her as Konstanze, the Queen of the Night, Fiordiligi, Donna Anna, Giunia, Rosalinde, Lucia, Gilda, Ann Truelove, Alcina and Laodice, among other roles, to New York, Paris, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Moscow, Beijing and German state opera houses. She has given solo concerts and lieder evenings all over Europe, as well as in the USA, Australia, the Sultanate of Oman, China, Russia, Mexico and Japan.

In addition to many radio and television productions, she has recorded numerous CDs. For her solo albums she has received a number of international awards, such as the annual award of the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik, the Diapason d`Or, Midem Award, Choc Le Monde de la Musique and Gramophone magazine’s Recording of the Month. For her album entitled Colori d`amore she was the winner of the Echo Klassik in the highest category, Female Singer of the Year, in 2011. In 2012 the Munich Abendzeitung awarded Simone Kermes its Star of the Year Award, and in April 2013 she received one of Russia’s highest cultural awards, the Golden Mask, for her performances as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Tchaikovsky State Academic Theatre in Perm.

Simone Kermes received the Echo Klassik 2014 award for the opera of the year.

Booklet for Rival Queens