Audiences are in for several comedies this week as well as rarely performed works.

New releases also include star-studded casts as well as rising stars. Here is a look at what to stream or watch this week!

Candide 

The LSO releases a new recording of Bernstein’s iconic work conducted by Marin Alsop. The new version was captured during celebratory concerts marking the composer’s centenary year in 2018 and features Leonardo Capalbo (Candide), Jane Archibald (Cunégonde), Anne Sofie von Otter (The Old Lady), Sir Thomas Allen (Dr Pangloss, Narrator), Thomas Atkins, Marcus Farnsworth, and young artists from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

In a statement, Alsop said, “I think for Bernstein, ‘Candide’ has its own special category. It’s not an opera, it’s not a musical, it’s not a concert piece. It is sort of all of the above and more. And this is what is unique, I think, about Leonard Bernstein – particularly Leonard Bernstein the composer. Every piece he wrote, they’re all dramatically different, they don’t fall into any kind of formula. If you look at his three symphonies: the Second Symphony is for solo piano and orchestra, the Third Symphony has chorus and a narrator, the First Symphony has a vocal soloist. His approach to writing music was very eclectic and very, very unique, and Candide really represents that.”

Dark Spring

The German-American composer Hans Thomalla and poet Joshua Clover release a recording of their 90-minute song-opera “Dark Spring” on OehmsClassics. Dark Spring, which was world premiered at the Mannheim Opera in fall 2020, takes place over 11 scenes and was recorded over five live performances at the Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim.

The recording is conducted by Alan Pierson and stars mezzo-soprano Shachar Lavi as Wendla, contralto Anna Hybiner as Ilse, tenor Christopher Diffey as Melchior, and countertenor Magid El-Bushra as Moritz.

Dark Spring combines American popular song tradition with the musical and theatrical avant-garde to form Thomalla’s eclectic take on contemporary opera.

La Grazia Delle Donne

The Ensemble La Cigale and soprano Myriam Leblanc release an album dedicated to musical creations of women in Baroque Italy. Among the composers that are heard on the album include• Isabella Leonarda, Vittoria Aleotti, • Vittoria Aleotti, Francesa and Settimia Caccini, • Barbara Strozzi, and Alessia Aldobrandini. Analekta releases the album. 

Ciboulette

Naxos releases a production of Reynaldo Hahn’s operetta in a production by Michel Fau at Paris’s Opéra Comique in February 2013. The production starred Julie Fuchs, Julien Behr, and Jean-François Lapointe and was conducted by Laurence Equilbey.