There’s no question that the 18th century was entirely focused on the vocal achievements of the great singing stars, both male and female – on both sopranos like Bordoni and Cuzzoni and on castrati like Farinelli and Carestini. They were equivalent to our superstars of today: alter egos of “their” composers, with whom they had fostered a virtually symbiotic relationship. In addition to these singers’ technical virtuosity–there’s a reason that Baroque arias are among the most difficult in the operatic repertoire–these sometimes almost mythical figures fascinated audiences with their beauty of tone and legato lines. They were oftentimes the absolute rulers of European opera stages – audiences worshipped them as godlike figures, their fees drove many a house to financial ruin, and their vocal artistry was so spectacular that even today, long after their voices have passed, their names are still uttered with reverence and admiration: The great vocal virtuosos of the Baroque period live on in the music that great composers wrote for their voices. Hasse was one of the founders of pre-classicism, which combined Neapolitan vocality with orchestral density, which undoubtedly reflects his German roots. The other German giant of opera seria was George Frideric Handel, who spent most of his life in London and adopted English nationality. Like Hasse, Handel also worked at the Hamburg Opera, where he wrote his first opera score, Almira (1705), at the age of nineteen. The recording was made with one of the world’s most important baroque orchestras, the Wiener Akademie Orchester under the direction of Jeremy Joseph.