Tag: Baroque

Ensemble Cremona Antiqua, Antonio Greco
85:09 (2 CDs in a case)
Dynamic CDS 7770.02

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the wake of Cecilia Bartoli’s 2013 exploration of Steffani’s operatic, sacred and instrumental outputs, this package offers us a complete recording of his opera Baccanali, composed in 1695 for the Duke Ernest Augustus of Hannover. The orchestra of the Ensemble Cremona Antiqua play one to a part, with two violins, one viola, cello, violone and pairs each of flutes (actually recorders) and oboes, all played with considerable finesse. The recording was made live at the Festival della Valle d’Itria, and there is considerable background from onstage movements, the audience and most distracting a considerable and pretty constant infrasound rumbling either from moving scenery or passing traffic. The live onstage singing is also a bit patchy, with some singers coping better than others with a clearly very active production. It is useful and interesting to have a complete Steffani opera available, and there are some undoubtedly lovely musical moments in this, but without the visuals to ‘explain’ the intrusive background noises, I found these very distracting to the extent that it was difficult to shut them out sufficiently to enjoy the music. So I can report that this opera seems to bear out the promise of Bartoli’s initial operatic samples – Steffani is definitely worth further attention, but this performance should have been taken into a recording studio to do Steffani and the musicians and singers justice. Another foolish economy was evident in the poor English translation of the programme note, replete with grammatical howlers. A missed opportunity.

D. James Ross

Paul Murrihy Orontea, Sebastian Geyer Creonte, Juanita Lascarro Tiburio/Amore, Guy de Mey Aristea, Xavier Sabata Alidoro, Simon Bailey Gelone, Matthias Rexroth Corindo, Louise Alder Silandra, Kateryna Kasper Giacinta, Katharina Magiera Filosofia, Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, Monteverdi-Continuo-Ensemble, Ivor Bolton
175:53 (3 CDs in a box with separate sleeve or booklet)
Oehms Classics OC965

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ascinating to have a complete performance on CD of an opera by this composer so much more written about than performed. As one of the early advocates of opera, Cesti owes a lot to Monteverdi, but his music turns out both to be much less individual than his august predecessor, but at the same time more part of what would become the mainstream of Baroque Italian opera tradition. This is a live recording of the first performance made in Frankfurt Opera house, a house in which I spent many fruitful hours in my youth and where even then lavish and radical productions went hand-in-hand with cutting-edge authenticity in productions of Baroque operas. From the photos in the notes it is clear that the former tradition is in good health while the confident Baroque sound is also thoroughly convincing. There is furthermore very little background noise from onstage movement or audience to make one aware this is live, although the slightly stuffy sound of the orchestra makes it clear they are playing from a pit. Having said that, this a vocally sparkling and instrumentally convincing rendition of Cesti’s music full of drama and theatrical interaction. Like most opera companies in Germany, Frankfurt Opera are on a very firm financial footing – I was hugely impressed when they appeared recently at the Edinburgh Festival fielding an entire Baroque orchestra for Dido and Aeneas  to replace it at the interval with a large modern instrument orchestra for Bluebeard’s Castle  – and all these forces on tour! This recording is of interest particularly to aficionados of early Italian opera, but I think it stands on its own as a fine performance of an operatic masterpiece.

D. James Ross

5455

[Elena Biscuola Alcina, Mauro Borgioni Ruggiero, Gabriella Martellacci Melissa, Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli Sirene/Una Damigella, Emmanuela Galli La Nunzia Oreste/La dama disincantata, Raffaele Giordani Nettuno/Un Pastore/Una Pianta incantata, Yiannis Vassilakis Fiume Vistola/Astolfo,] Allabastrina, La Pifarescha, Elena Sartori
79:10
Glossa GCD 923902

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]efore I write my review of the recording, a disclaimer: the edition used in the performance is my own. It never ceases to amaze me that working on a piece of music for several years (as I have with revisions and corrections of the score of Caccini’s work, after performances and workshops have cast new light on it), no matter how many times one listens to it in Sibelius, and no matter how good the sound of digitally sampled instruments has become (even the wordless “singers” are quite convincing), there is no way a computer can ever compensate for human performance. Starting with the different colours instruments and voices can produce at the whim of the performers, obviously. So, hearing this short opera for the very first time has been an utter revelation. This is a lavish co-production between two ensembles with violins, recorders, viols, cornetti, sackbuts, theorboes, “arciviolata lyra” (as the score requires), harpsichord and organ; sometimes the score is very specific in its demands, while at others unlabelled instrumental staves leave the choice of colours to the musicians themselves. Elena Sartori has made some judicious choices (including allocating two voice parts to recorders in a coro di damigelle), and similarly shrewd alterations to the running order, as well as supplying music by other composers to accompany the balli referred to in the source. The singing – solo and ensemble – is excellent throughout with some characterful renditions of the parts, which help the listener to follow the action. Despite a relatively large number of continuo players, there is none of the kaleidoscopic approach which has dogged many a HIP production of late; each section (and often sequence of sections) maintains the same soundscape. They also relish Caccini’s occasional harmonic boldness, without it becoming the centre of attention. Ultimately this is a very fine performance (and recording) of a work that really does deserve to be more widely known.

Brian Clark