Countertenor Randall Scotting Releases Three Videos in Advance of New Album Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage
Countertenor Randall Scotting Releases Three Videos in Advance of New Album Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage
Latest Video Featured Today as Gramophone’s Video of The Day
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Album Out Next Week: March 13, 2026
Signum Classics
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www.randallscotting.com | www.signumrecords.com/product/divine-impresario
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Internationally acclaimed countertenor Randall Scotting will release Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage on March 13, 2026 via Signum Classics. The landmark album celebrates Nicolò Grimaldi, the castrato who conquered the opera world under the stage name Nicolini (1673 - 1732). Recorded with the Academy of Ancient Music under the direction of Laurence Cummings, with soprano Mary Bevan, the album features rarely performed arias and duets from the early 18th century, nine of which have never been recorded before and have not been heard since Nicolini's lifetime.
In advance of the album, Scotting has released three behind-the-scenes videos filmed during the recording sessions. The associated singles are also now available. The latest video is featured today as Gramophone’s Video of the Day.
Divine Impresario takes its title from Nicolini's unique role as both performer and visionary. “When I think about Nicolò Grimaldi, the word that comes to mind is impresario,” explains Scotting. “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.”
While Nicolini is best remembered today for the music Handel wrote for him, including beloved arias from Rinaldo and Amadigi, this album reveals his far broader musical world. For Divine Impresario, Scotting has revived works by a range of composers who wrote for this castrato, drawn to his dramatic range and vocal brilliance, including Francesco Gasparini, Nicola Porpora, Riccardo Broschi, Francesco Mancini, Attilio Ariosti, and Giovanni Antonio Giaj.
For Scotting, this project marries his onstage and offstage roles. Sought-after by some of the world's most esteemed opera houses and concert halls, the countertenor’s performances have been described as “expressive” (The New York Times), “rich-toned” (Musical America), “luminous” (Ópera Actual), “ravishing” (BBC Music Magazine), and “flexible and rich” (Early Music Review). His breakout moment came in 2019 at London's Royal Ballet & Opera when he stepped in last-minute for Sir David McVicar's production of Britten's Death in Venice, praised for “singing brilliantly” to sold-out audiences, after which he joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. In 2023, he created the role of Adone in the world premiere of Venere e Adone at the Staatsoper Hamburg under Kent Nagano, earning praise for a “vocally and physically muscular” performance. He has previously worked with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the New York Philharmonic, Italy's Spoleto Festival, Boston Baroque, and Sydney's Pinchgut Opera, among others. He recently made spectacular debuts at the Royal Ballet & Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Staatsoper Hamburg, with upcoming debuts at Carnegie Hall and La Fenice in Venice.
Holding a PhD from the Royal College of Music in London, where his dissertation focused on the castrato Senesino and early 18th-century Italian opera, Scotting is also that rare performer who has trained extensively as a scholar – a background that served him well in researching and bringing to life the repertoire he performs here.
After extensive research into Nicolini’s performing career, Scotting sought out manuscripts from archives in England, Belgium, Austria, Germany, and Sweden. Choosing the best of what he found, he then meticulously created modern performing editions for all the music on the album so that it could be performed and recorded.
“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,” says Scotting. “Like him, I'm drawn to music-making that is dramatically committed. In recording this music, I sought to channel the intensity for which Nicolini was famous and to honor his legacy as the divine impresario: defined by an ambition for opera to be more than just dazzling technique, but also a captivating and emotional experience.”
Born into a poor Neapolitan family in 1673, Nicolò Grimaldi rose to become one of the most celebrated performers of his era. After making his stage debut in Naples at only twelve years old, he rapidly gained fame throughout Italy, eventually being inducted into the Order of Saint Mark’s Cross in Venice in 1705 for his outstanding performances. His reputation soon spread across Europe, and in 1708 he arrived in London with a three-year contract and an extraordinary £1,000 salary (an amount that at that time would have taken a skilled tradesman thirty years to earn).
Nicolini quickly became an international superstar, praised not only for his vocal brilliance but for his exceptional acting. One of the album's highlights is “Mostro crudel che fai?” from Riccardo Broschi's Idaspe, representing the famed lion-fighting scene that electrified London audiences. In Mancini's Idaspe fedele, Nicolini became notorious for slaying a “live” lion onstage in a nude-colored costume – a theatrical spectacle that became one of early 18th-century London's most talked-about moments. The album also includes the delicate and lyrical aria “È vano ogni pensiero” from Mancini's setting of the opera, revealing how Nicolini could, as Scotting puts it in his liner note for the album, “wrestle monsters and still sing with incomparable elegance.”
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