Randall Scotting Releases DIVINE IMPRESARIO: NICOLINI ON STAGE

Internationally acclaimed countertenor Randall Scotting has released DIVINE IMPRESARIO: NICOLINI ON STAGE on Signum Classics. The album, recorded with the Academy of Ancient Music under the direction of Laurence Cummings and featuring soprano Mary Bevan, explores the repertoire associated with the celebrated castrato Nicolò Grimaldi, known professionally as Nicolini.

The recording presents arias and duets from the early eighteenth century written for Nicolini, including works by Francesco Gasparini, Nicola Porpora, Riccardo Broschi, Francesco Mancini, Attilio Ariosti, and Giovanni Antonio Giaj. Nine of the selections are receiving their first recordings and have not been heard since Nicolini’s lifetime.

While Nicolini is widely remembered today for the music George Frideric Handel wrote for him—including arias from Rinaldo and Amadigi—the album highlights the wider network of composers who wrote for the singer during the height of his career.

“ When I think about Nicolò Grimaldi, the word that comes to mind is impresario,” Scotting said. “Not in the limited sense of a theatre manager, but rather as a creative force who shaped the artform itself. Nicolini wasn't content just to stand and sing; he directed performances, he reworked libretti, and he elevated the standard of acting in opera.”

Scotting undertook extensive archival research for the project, locating manuscripts in archives in England, Belgium, Austria, Germany, and Sweden. He prepared new performing editions of the music for the recording.

“For me, stepping into this repertoire is a kind of conversation across time, with Nicolini, but also with the idea of what it means to be an impresario today,” Scotting said. “In recording this music, I sought to channel the intensity for which Nicolini was famous and to honor his legacy as the divine impresario.”

Nicolini rose to prominence in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries after debuting in Naples as a teenager. By the early 1700s he had become one of Europe’s most celebrated opera singers and a major attraction on the London stage, where he performed in productions that helped shape the development of Italian opera in Britain.

The album includes highlights such as “Mostro crudel che fai?” from Broschi’s Idaspe, referencing a famous stage spectacle in which Nicolini battled a lion during a London production. The recording also features more lyrical selections, including Mancini’s aria “È vano ogni pensiero,” demonstrating the expressive range associated with Nicolini’s performances.

Scotting, whose performances have been praised by The New York Times as “expressive” and by BBC Music Magazine as “ravishing,” has appeared with companies including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the New York Philharmonic, Boston Baroque, and Sydney’s Pinchgut Opera. He also holds a PhD from the Royal College of Music in London, where his research focused on early eighteenth-century Italian opera.

DIVINE IMPRESARIO: NICOLINI ON STAGE is available now on Signum Classics.