Giulia Semenzato, soprano Raffaele Pe, alto La Venexiana Efix Puleo, violin Daniela Godio, violin Luca Moretti, viola Antonio Papetti, violoncello Alberto Lo Gatto, violone Chiara Granata, triple harp Gabriele Palomba, theorbo Diego Cantalupi, theorbo Luca Oberti, harpsichord Claudio Cavina, direction MN Recorded in Lodi (Teatro alle Vigne), Italy, in December 2015 Engineered by Matteo Costa Produced by Alberto Lo Gatto Executive producer & editorial director: Carlos Céster Editorial assistance: María Díaz, Mark Wiggins Design: Rosa Tendero © 2016 note 1 music gmbh Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676) Sospiri d’amore Opera duets and arias. Venice, 1644-1666 01 O luci belle (Duetto. Eritrea , 1652) Libretto: Giovanni Faustini 4:04 02 Qui cadè al tuo piè (Duetto. Orimonte , 1650) Libretto: Nicolò Minato 3:39 03 Né meste più (Duetto. La Veremonda , 1652) Libretto: Giulio Strozzi 5:23 04 Lassa, che fò (Soprano. Statira , 1656) Libretto: Giovanni Francesco Busenello 4:36 05 Corone ed honori (Alto. Il Ciro , 1653) Libretto: Anon. 3:02 06 Vanne intrepido o mio bene (Soprano. Statira , 1656) Libretto: Giovanni Francesco Busenello 3:36 07 L’aspetto feroce (Duetto. Muzio Scevola , 1665) Libretto: Nicolò Minato 3:03 08 D’Amor non si quereli (Duetto. Ormindo , 1644) Libretto: Giovanni Faustini 3:02 09 Io misero fui Rege (Alto. Scipione Affricano , 1664) Libretto: Nicolò Minato 2:31 10 Hor che l’aurora (Dialogo. Egisto , 1643) Libretto: Giovanni Faustini 10:25 11 Io chiudo nel core (Duetto. Il rapimento di Elena , 1659) Libretto: Nicolò Minato 6:35 12 Alpi gelate (Soprano. Pompeo Magno , 1666) Libretto: Nicolò Minato 3:40 13 Sì, sì, che questa notte (Duetto. Ormindo , 1644) Libretto: Giovanni Faustini 6:28 MN english english the one supporting the other and both raising each maschera ). All such successful operatic models origi - Carnival, the first operatic blockbuster in history other’s beauty to a level of perfection seldom nated with Cavalli and his close collaborations with (Giasone ), his connections with Monteverdi and the achieved across history. For it is true to say that the best librettists, standards which even today are fiercely negotiated career at San Marco, being a music cannot achieve everything on its own, and in being employed by authors of Broadway musicals. Venetian working for both Mazarin and Louis XIV, reflection of that, this album – which explores 11 of How, in an hour’s worth of music, can one go taking part in the birth of French opera, and lastly Francesco Cavalli Cavalli’s 32 operas – does so by paying tribute to those about summing up the some thirty-odd operas by being the composer who wrote his own Requiem particularly successful librettists with whom Cavalli Cavalli – particularly by doing this through a substan - mass shortly before his own death (a theme which Sospiri d’amore worked: the two geniuses of the Accademia degli tial proportion of previously unrecorded pieces? The irresistibly calls Milos Forman’s Amadeus to mind). Incogniti “borrowed” from Monteverdi: Giulio decision to alternate between arie a voce sola and duet - So, on hearing all these arias and duets here, it is Strozzi ( Veremonda ) and Giovanni Francesco ti conveys the constant to-ing and fro-ing which is so difficult to avoid raising the question as to the place With Francesco Cavalli, more than with any other Busenello ( Statira ); but also the young and passionate characteristic of the Cavallian art, between the intro - that love occupied within the composer’s life. Italian composer from the Seicento , the idea of love inventive spirits whose work serves to highlight the spection and the theatrical exchange which allows Francesco Cavalli held a tender love for his wife takes on as many nuances and expressions as are pro - golden age of Venetian opera – especially Giovanni for most attractive of melismas. Furthermore, the Maria; she is known by musicologists today for being vided by the many hundreds of models from Venetian Faustini (responsible for Egisto , Ormindo , Eritrea ), but two most popular voices for both composer and his responsible for the copying of the Venetian manu - masques. Love was both the key and the cornerstone also Nicolò Minato ( Orimonte , Il rapimento di Elena , audiences were the soprano and the castrato; from script of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the for any opera worthy of the name, as well as being an Scipione Affricano , Mutio Scevola , Pompeo Magno ) who this enthusiasm emerged the star system as we know time of the opera’s revival in a production conducted infinite source of inspiration, which gave rise to followed in Faustini’s wake. The latter two librettists it today. Finally, the chosen programme here illus - by her husband at the end of the 1640s. Maria was an music which dominated its time and which made were also instrumental in assisting Cavalli establish trates all the composer’s varied modes of inspiration: excellent musician herself, and took a leading role in Cavalli the most celebrated composer of his century. standards of the operatic art: the Cavallian lamenti , tragedy, comedy, profundity, frivolousness, fictional the development of her husband’s works, skilfully With his short, easily memorisable and instantly for example, proved to be of inspiration for many and Eastern themes of an exotic nature ( Ormindo , directing his score-copying workshop. She ran the alluring arias, and his unmatched approach to writing composers – including Purcell with his celebrated Orimonte , Eritrea , Ciro , Statira ), mythology ( Egisto , Il family home and was additionally kept occupied with recitative, he was one of the few Seicento musicians to aria for Dido “When I am laid in earth”. Further rapimento di Elena ), Roman history ( Scipione Affricano , the composer’s pupils on a full-time basis. And yet, compose in his own unique style, and one that was examples of his creating models include the sommeil Mutio Scevola , Pompeo Magno ) and the splendour of even all that does not represent the end of the story! instantly recognizable – one which he would not cast or sleep scene (such as in Atys by Lully), the scène infer - court opera ( Veremonda ) as well. The question pres - The love which united Francesco and Maria lies at aside at any price. nale or vision of hell (as in Rameau), arias involving ents itself as to whether Cavalli’s major source of the centre of an enigma which adds spice to Cavalli’s The compositional fluency which was Cavalli’s the trumpet (Handel), whilst beyond the Baroque era inspiration came from his own life or not – one which entire existence. Indeed, Maria was a widow for a hallmark, which moved effortlessly from recitar can - Cavalli’s influence can be found in the buffo servant is worthy of a bestselling novel with all its mandatory mere six months before Francesco married her in tando to aria by way of arioso, but also from tragic (Leporello), the disguise en travesti (Cherubino), the ingredients: a poor and unhappy childhood, gambling 1630; and her first husband was rich – very rich, emotion to the most uproarious scenarios within the love duet ( Tristan und Isolde ), the mad scene ( Lucia di and debts, the suspicious death of his mistress’ hus - indeed. At a short point after her second marriage, same work, meant that his music never stood in the Lammermoor ), the letter scene (Tatyana in Eugene band, the vast inheritance, a flair for doing well in Maria bequeathed in a will the entire fortune of her way of or hampered the creative activity of acting – Onegin ) and the invocation scene (Ulrica in Un ballo in business, the success story built upon the Venetian first husband to Francesco Cavalli. It was, moreover, 6 7 english français as a result of this windfall that the composer became and express that energy: “Né meste più” ( Veremonda ), Car la musique ne fait pas tout, et cet album explore the first Venetian musician to take the plunge in pub - “Qui cadè al tuo pie” ( Orimonte ) and “L’aspetto onze des trente-deux opéras de Cavalli en rendant lic opera (even before the older Monteverdi did so), feroce” ( Muzio Scevola ). Conversely, it would be amiss hommage à ses meilleurs librettistes : les deux génies and who ran a consequent financial risk by so doing. to talk about love in Baroque opera without consid - de l’Accademia degli Incogniti « empruntés » à One might also possibly conjecture as to whether ering the lamenti , and provided here is the breath- Monteverdi : Strozzi ( La Veremonda ) et Busenello ( La Cavalli maintained an adulterous relationship with taking “Lassa, che fò” ( Statira ), which clearly fore - Statira ) ; mais aussi les jeunes et fougueux créateurs Maria prior to the death of her first husband, partic - shadows the famous lament of Dido, supplied with a ayant marqué l’âge d’or de l’opéra vénitien : Faustini ularly given that nothing is known about how that chromatic ostinato bass that Purcell was evidently Francesco Cavalli bien sûr ( L’Egisto , L’Ormindo , L’Eritrea ), dans les pas poor man with a colossal fortune met his death... not the first to put to good use! duquel s’inscrit l’œuvre de Minato ( Orimonte , Il rapi - Maria was to die in 1752, after 22 years of shared The musical survey which is being offered here Sospiri d’amore mento di Elena , Scipione Affricano , Muzio Scevola , life with the composer: 22 years of love and a joint lastly takes a glance towards the following century: Pompeo Magno ). Ces derniers ont aidé Cavalli à fixer work which resulted in fifteen operas. On becoming “Vanne intrepido o mio bene”, expressing Statira’s Chez Cavalli plus que chez tout autre compositeur les canons de l’art lyrique : les lamenti cavalliens inspi - aware of the different aspects of Cavalli’s life and agony of indecision, torn between love and strife italien du Seicento, l’amour adopte autant de nuances rèrent maints compositeurs – dont Purcell dans son character, his great love duets – matured by an irre - (that endless and inexhaustible topic!), is one of the et d’expressions qu’en offrent les centaines de célèbre air de Didon, « When I am laid in earth ».