Lamenti - Emmanuelle Haim, Le Concert d'Astree

 

Release Date: 10/14/2008 Label: Virgin Classics Number of discs: 1 Composers: Various Performer: Emmanuelle Haïm,  Le Concert D'Astrée cd info/ buy

Review:

Lamentation may be the theme of this collection of vocal music from the Italian Baroque, but the line-up of artists gives ample cause for celebration. After her recent all-star Virgin Classics recording of Bach's Magnificat and Handel's Dixit Dominus, Emmanuelle Haïm has chosen an exceptional and diverse array of soloists for this programme of vocal works by Monteverdi, Carissimi, Cavalli, Cesti, Landi and Strozzi. The literary and dramatic form of the lamento reached its musical apogee in the 17th century with Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna, a fragment from a lost opera. The abandoned princess is sung here by Véronique Gens, who made such an impression with her Virgin Classics recital Tragédiennes. Another abandoned woman, this time a nymph, is embodied by the sylph-like Natalie Dessay in the same composer's Lamento della ninfa from the Eighth Book of Madrigals, while his song of Orpheus is entrusted to intense Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón, the maybe unexpected hero in Haïm's 2006 Virgin Classics recording of Monteverdi's Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. More Monteverdi comes from Joyce DiDonato, the superb American mezzo who recently signed to EMI/Virgin Classics as an exclusive artist; she dons the mantle of a deposed Empress for Ottavia's farewell to Rome from L'incoronazione di Poppea. More recent royal history is gracefully addressed by Patrizia Ciofi in Carissimi's Lamento di Maria Stuarda, while Philippe Jaroussky brings his brilliant countertenor to Barbara Strozzi's dramatic monologue L'Eraclito amoroso, probably written for the composer to sing herself. The Finn Topi Lehtipuu, described by the Daily Telegraph as "one of the most elegant and musical young lyric tenors to have emerged for a decade" portrays Aeneas in a setting by Cavalli; the British baritone Christopher Purves gives evidence of his stylistic range – he is also an exceptional Wozzeck – in Landi, while France's reigning bass-baritone, Laurent Naouri becomes the Beotian king Atamante in Cesti's Dure noie. Completing the line-up are the lush-voiced Canadian mezzo Marie-Nicole Lemieux and the young British tenor Simon Wall, reaffirming that lovers of fine singing will have nothing to complain about... Composer:  Pier Francesco Cavalli,  Claudio Monteverdi,  Barbara Strozzi,  Giacomo Carissimi,  Stefano Landi, Pietro Antonio Cesti Performer:  Rolando Villazón,  Christopher Purves,  Simon Wall,  Natalie Dessay,  Topi Lehtipuu, Philippe Jaroussky,  Véronique Gens,  Joyce DiDonato,  Patrizia Ciofi, Marie-Nicole Lemieux,  Laurent Naouri

 

flac, covers

Cavalli - Gli Amori Di Apollo E Di Dafne - Garrido, Ensemble Elyma

 

Release Date: November 4, 2008 Label: K617 Number of discs: 2 Composer: Francesco Cavalli Performer: Gabriel Garrido, Ensemble Elyma cd info/ buy

Review:

Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne (The Loves of Apollo and Daphne) is an opera by the Italian composer Francesco Cavalli. It was Cavalli's second operatic work and was premiered at the Teatro San Cassiano, Venice during the Carnival season of 1640. The libretto is by Giovanni Francesco Busenello and is based on the story of the god Apollo's love for the nymph Daphne as told in Ovid's Metamorphoses. At the dawn of opera in Venice, Monteverdi's pupil Cavalli and the poet G.F Busenello, created Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne. This fruitful collaboration inaugurated a cycle which, together with L’Incoronazione di Poppea, was to become emblematic of the new Venetian opera. The present recording spares no effort to recreate the magnificence that was to make Italian music the 'mistress’ of the world.

 

flac, booklet

Cavalli - Giasone - Jacobs, Concerto Vocale

 

Release Date: November 14, 2000 Label: Harmonia Mundi Number of discs: 3 Composer: Francesco Cavalli Performer: René Jacobs, Concerto Vocale  cd info/ buy

Review:

The plot revolves around Jason's theft of the Golden Fleece, an undertaking in which he is helped by his lover, the Queen of Corinth (a sorceress) also called Medea. Jason and Medea are totally ruthless and incredibly immoral having conceived ,under the cover of darkness without having seen each other,twins. Mocked by Hercules (an Argonaut) for his (Jasons) effeminacy,Jason is also derided by Besso, the captain of his own guard, who comes across Jason and Medea sleeping nude in the open, sarcastically declares that Jason has :'the ram on his shoulders and the cow in his arms'. (The opera is filled with little comments like this o from various characters, usually at Jason's expense.) Isifil, Jason's deserted wife comes across as the one tragic character in this opera. However,thru a set of circumstances involving many twists and turns in the plot,Jason returns to his wife in the end, having been deserted by Medea, who returns to her husband (Aegeus). "Giasone" is a good example of mid-century Venetian Opera- a powerful brew of the spectacular, the wickedly, and the sometimes deliciously humorous and touchingly pathetic. Rene Jacobs has done a marvelous job pulling this lengthy (3h53'56") opera together, but it's Cavalli's delightful music, along with a simply fabulous cast that keeps it going. To name just a few of them (there are 15 in all)who have the larger parts: Michael Chance (Jason) countertenor; Gloria Banditelli (Medea) Mezzo; and Catherine DuBosc (Isifile) soprano; Harry van der Kamp (Ercole) bass; Michael Schopper (Besso)bass ; Bernard Deletre (Oreste) tenor ; Dominique Visse (Delfa) countertenor; and Guy de May (Egeo) tenor. Vocally and dramatically excellent! A mesmerizing recording and marvelously entertaining!

 

flac, cover