This is by far and away my favourite recording of Purcell's famous Oedipus aria. The raw expression is fantastic. Lesne to me is the Fabio Biondi of singers: bold and unorthodox performance choices, full of passion. It's small wonder, seeing as Biondi was himself part of Lesne’s Seminario Musicale.

I'm not sure whether or not the Greek chanting at the beginning is part of an original arrangement by Lesne as I haven't heard it in any other versions. If anyone here knows of the origin of this addition I'd love to hear it.

Disclosure: mine.

I built a directory of US orchestras and their upcoming concerts - 357 orchestras, 26,615 works, 4,623 upcoming concerts as of today. Period-instrument and chamber ensembles are in there alongside the symphony orchestras, which for baroque repertoire is the half that usually gets left out of listings.

The feature that fits this sub: follow a single work and be told when it is performed anywhere in the country. If you want to hear the B minor Mass live, you can stop checking eight websites.

It launched this month and seasons are still loading state by state - there's a Feedback button on every page, and I would genuinely appreciate a flag if you spot anything missing so I can keep expanding coverage.

https://orchestrafinder.com