The first half of the 18th century saw an insatiable demand for new opera seria, or dramma per musica, in Venice, Rome, Milan and, principally, London, where composer and teacher Nicola Porpora ran the Opera of the Nobility, putting poor Handel very firmly (though temporarily) in the shade. This collection of castrato arias includes six astonishing discoveries, many recorded for the first time, from Porpora, Johann Aldolf Hasse and Giuseppe de Majo, sung by the beguilingly agile Simone Kermes with delightfully pungent playing from La Magnifica Comunità. Listen through headphones for some glorious detail in the continuo.