Tenors Michael Spyres and Lawrence Brownlee celebrate the star singers of Rossini’s time in a new album, Amici e Rivali (Friends and Rivals). The disc features arias, duets, and trios from seven of the composer’s operas, written between 1815 and 1826: Il barbiere di Siviglia, Otello, Armida, La donna del Lago, Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra, Le Siège de Corinthe, and Ricciardo e Zoraide.

There are also two guests on the disc – the Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught and the young Spanish tenor Xabier Anduaga. The recording was made at the artistic home of conductor Corrado Rovaris and I Virtuosi Italiani, the Teatro Ristori in Verona.

Except for Il barbiere which premiered in Rome, all the works represented on Amici e Rivali have their roots in Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Although Le Siège de Corinthe was written for Paris