The Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896–1967) felt the fascination for A Florentine Tragedy, Oscar Wilde’s drama of love and violence in Renaissance Italy, that also attracted his near-contemporary Alexander Zemlinsky: they set the same libretto. Flury responded to the text with this dark and swirling one-act verismo opera, sizzling with sexual tension, the vocal lines of the three characters unfolding over an orchestral texture remarkable for its plasticity and kaleidoscopic colour. It is preceded here by a dignified but impassioned operatic scena setting Grillparzer’s dramatic treatment of the suicide of the Greek poetess Sappho.

The soprano Julia Sophie Wagner has become especially commended for her performances of Bach; concert tours and guest appearances have brought her all over Europe as well as to the United States, and to South America, Japan and China.

The Chinese tenor Long Long was a finalist in the Operalia 2018 competition in Lisbon and winner of the third prize of the Tenor Viñas International Singing Contest in Barcelona in 2019.

The baritone Daniel Ochoa likewise feels a special affinity with the music of Bach, although he was also (2012–17) was a member of the soloists’ ensemble at the Vienna Volksoper.

Paul Mann is a regular guest-conductor with many orchestras throughout Europe, the USA, Australia and the Far East; this is his fifteenth recording for Toccata Classics.