BAROQUE DIVAS ROMINA BASSO, VIVICA GENAUX, MARY-ELLEN NESI mezzo-sopranos SONIA PRINA contralto FRANCESCO MARIA VERACINI 1690–1768 1 Amor, dover, rispetto Adriano in Siria Vivica Genaux 9.26 JOHANN ADOLF HASSE 1699–1783 2 Eccomi alfine … 3.43 3 Pallido il sole Artaserse Sonia Prina 8.09 CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK 1714–1787 Vivica Genaux Mary-Ellen Nesi 4 Ma fille … Jupiter, lance ta foudre! Iphigénie en Aulide Mary-Ellen Nesi 3.54 Photo: Christian Steiner Photo: Irini Michopoulou ANTONIO VIVALDI 1678–1741 5 Vedrò con mio diletto Giustino Romina Basso 6.41 JOHANN ADOLF HASSE 6 Solca il mar e nel periglio Tigrane Sonia Prina 4.10 7 Fra quest’ombre Solimano Vivica Genaux 11.43 GIOVANNI BATTISTA BONONCINI 1670–1747 8 Spera che questo cor Astianatte Mary-Ellen Nesi 3.04 CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK 9 Le belle immagini d’un dolce amore Paride ed Elena Vivica Genaux 4.21 Romina Basso Sonia Prina Photo: Paris Mexis Photo: Paris Mexis 2 LEONARDO VINCI ?1696–1730 Farinelli, Faustina Bordoni, Grimaldi, Minelli: the eternal clash of singers “ancient” and “modern” 0 Ti calpesto, o crudo amore Astianatte Sonia Prina 4.38 There is an early nineteenth-century print, of opera: where once singers had simply DOMENICO NATALE SARRO 1679–1744 labelled with the dedication Al nobil uomo il performed what was written in the score, ! Al torrente che ruina Siroe re di Persia Romina Basso 3.40 Sig. Conte Cav. Pietro Gherardi (“To his thanks to Bordoni they now began to play lordship the noble Count Pietro Gherardi”, a key and knowledgeable role in conveying GIOVANNI PORTA ?1675–1755 rev. GIUSEPPE SELLITTO 1700–1777 Società Rainaldi, Florence, before 1829), aesthetic values, one legitimised by their @ Ti parli nel seno speranza ed amore Siface Mary-Ellen Nesi 8.30 which depicts a musical “family tree”, own superiority over all others involved in topped by Apollo’s lyre and with medallion opera. How was this achieved? By raising Dimitris Vamvas solo oboe portraits of the most celebrated singers of their technical and performance abilities the previous hundred years hanging from its to the highest level, even beyond those ANTONIO CALDARA ?1671–1736 branches. Closest to the lyre are the oldest of the most experienced instrumentalists. £ Daranno all’ira mia Euristeo Romina Basso 3.57 and most authoritative of their number — According to Vincenzio Martinelli, Bordoni the uppermost medallion portrays five created a “third style” of performance to undisputed stars of eighteenth-century which composers had no choice but to ARMONIA ATENEA opera: Carlo Broschi (known as Farinelli), adapt. As surviving scores confirm, the path on period instruments Vittoria Tesi, Marianna Benti Bulgarelli, taken by Farinelli — who made his debut sur instruments d’époque · auf authentischen Instrumenten Antonio Maria Bernacchi and Francesco in 1721 — had already been forged by his GEORGE PETROU Antonio Pistocchi. Just below them we find female Venetian colleague. contemporaries of Farinelli such as Giovanni Certain singers are notable by their C Carestini and Gaetano Majorano (known as absence from our family tree: why were Caffarelli). Faustina Bordoni sits alongside such glittering stars as Maria Maddalena them, in a medallion all of her own, below Musi, Francesco de Castris, Antonio Pasi, that of Farinelli: a questionable choice of Filippo Balatri and Francesca Cuzzoni left out? position from a historical point of view. Such performers — all exponents of the stile Eighteenth-century sources are unanimous antico — were lauded for the beauty of their in acclaiming Farinelli’s peerless abilities, in sound, the nobility of their phrasing, their all styles, but particularly in bravura pieces. sparing use of improvised variations, their Faustina, however, attempted the most flexibility in adapting to any style — qualities death-defying feats of virtuosity even considered less important, even entirely before Farinelli did (from her debut in abandoned, by the representatives of the 1716 onwards). More than that, she was “new” style whose portraits, by contrast, responsible for a sea change in the history feature so prominently here. 3 This album pays tribute to some of the encountered the composers of the new vogue during that period: written in the became denser, vocal writing went in most illustrious absentees. One such is Neapolitan school, did Minelli begin to major mode, cantabile in nature, with free search of another more simplified means Neapolitan alto castrato Nicolò Grimaldi, demonstrate a hitherto unsuspected and easy rhythms (a conservative theorist of expression. The kind of “overbearing whose career began in 1685 and ended in virtuosity. An aria such as “Solca il mar e such as Pier Francesco Tosi would have unisons” referred to by Tosi yielded to 1731 and thus encompassed various nel periglio” (Hasse, Tigrane), written for railed against a piece of this type, in which sumptuous orchestration, the vocal line changes in musical taste. From the start, him, would have daunted other valiant “the allegro will now and then be mixed went back to its former pristine purity. Grimaldi made a name for himself as a performers of the Bologna school, such as with the pathetic”). It was written for This aesthetic can be heard in both “Fra great actor as well as singer — there was the more famous Bernacchi. Of the same Farinelli by Giovanni Porta (Farnace; Bologna quest’ombre” (Hasse, Solimano) and “Le no one to match him in heroic and paternal generation as Minelli was soprano Giovanni 1731); on this CD we hear a version belle immagini d’un dolce amore” (Gluck, roles. His greatest triumphs came during Ossi, who studied with Francesco reworked by Giuseppe Sellitto for the Paride ed Elena): in essence, there was a the years he spent in London: he created Gasparini. His gift for the pathetic was castrato Caffarelli as part of his setting of return to the patetico style, to convincingly the title role in Handel’s Rinaldo, written perfectly suited to arias such as Vivaldi’s Siface (Sellitto rewrote the second part of portrayed emotions, and to minor-mode with him in mind, in 1711 (and appeared in “Vedrò con mio diletto” (Giustino), the aria but did not touch the first, notable tonic keys. Perhaps another triumph of the the revivals of 1712, 1715 and 1717). Two of included here. for the dialogue it establishes between “ancient” over the “modern”? the arias included here — “Ti calpesto, o Works written for performers of the stile voice and solo oboe.) “Spera che questo crudo amore” and “Pallido il sole” — feature antico display an obvious synergy between cor” from Bononcini’s Astianatte, Giovanni Andrea Sechi qualities that suited Grimaldi’s vocal style to the text, the nature of the music and the meanwhile, represents the best of the Translation Susannah Howe perfection: a clear-cut melodic line, incisive vocal style of the performer. From the young Faustina: the parlante style was declamation and brief passages of agility second decade of the eighteenth century one of her specialities, as were long and Bibliography that highlight the heroic nature of the onwards, however, this balance began to complex coloratura passages. G.B. Mancini, Pensieri e riflessioni pratiche character in question. change, as vocal expressiveness in its own Instrumental-style virtuosity and a lack of sopra il canto figurato, Vienna 1774. Fellow alto Giovanni Battista Minelli had a right became the predominant feature of interest in the pathetic style — distinctive V. Martinelli, Lettere familiari e critiche, more restricted career — in 1725 he turned opera — a shift demonstrated by the arias elements of the three arias just discussed London 1758. down an opportunity to work in London examined in the rest of this paragraph. — did not last long: in the second half of P.F. Tosi, Opinioni de’ cantori antichi e alongside Senesino and Francesca Cuzzoni. “Amor, dover, rispetto” from Adriano in Siria the eighteenth century, as orchestral writing moderni, Bologna 1723. Minelli, a castrato from Bologna, was one of by Francesco Maria Veracini is the epitome the most acclaimed pupils of Pistocchi and of Farinellian virtuosity: the passages of heir to an older school of singing, dedicated agility in this aria are among the most to pure, high-flown lyrical expression. difficult ever written for the human voice He was renowned for his tasteful (scales, arpeggios, repeated notes, leaps of ornamentations, and for being able to over an octave; the version performed here perform pieces of “every characterised is that published by John Walsh, which style” (Giovanni Battista Mancini). Only omits the woodwind parts). “Ti parli nel at the height of his fame, when he seno” represents the ideal of the aria in 4 Farinelli, Faustina Bordoni, Grimaldi, Minelli : l’éternelle rivalité entre style ces mêmes particularités qui pour ceux la noblesse et à la pureté de l’expression “nouveau” et style “ancien” qui défendaient le “nouveau style” — lyrique. Il était renommé pour sa capacité majoritairement présents dans l’arbre d’embellir ses morceaux avec goût, et pour Sur une illustration du début du XIXe siècle Bordoni, les chanteurs, qui jusqu’alors généalogique — étaient moins évidentes ses dons d’interprète de pièces “de (Al nobil uomo il Sig. Conte Cav. Pietro n’avaient été que les simples exécutants ou parfois même laissées de côté. quelque style caractéristique que ce soit” Gherardi, Société Rainaldi, Florence, ante d’une partition devinrent les dépositaires L’objectif de la présente sélection est de (Giovanni Battista Mancini). Ce n’est qu’au 1829) les plus éminents chanteurs du conscients de valeurs esthétiques, justifiés rendre hommage à certains de ces illustres faîte de sa carrière, quand il rencontra les siècle précédent sont représentés dans par leur propre supériorité sur tous les absents. Parmi eux figure le castrat compositeurs de l’école napolitaine, que les médaillons d’un arbre généalogique : artisans des spectacles lyriques.