Monteverdi's Vorrei baciarti duet from Infinite Refrain with Randall Scotting & Jorge Navarro Colorado

Infinite Refrain: Music of Love's Refuge, the new disc from countertenor Randall Scotting, tenor Jorge Navarro Colorado, the Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings is released on Signum Classics today [link tree]. 

I encourage you to explore the album for a number of reasons. The two singers are both artists whom I admire and their repertoire on the disc, arias and duets from 17th century Venetian opera, is made even more enticing because the disc makes explicit something that is too often simply implicit in classical music. 

It explores a relationship between two men using music from a 17th century Venice which was one of the few places in Europe where such things could be even mentioned openly. A few years ago, I wrote an article about the depictions of gay relationships on the operatic stage and it became apparent that before the 20th century, you had to go to 17th-century Venice for anything like being open. 

There is another reason why I am mentioning the disc. We supported their GoFundMe, which is still open. So do give the disc a try.