George Frideric Handel was one of those rare composers who excelled in works sacred and secular, instrumental and operatic, leaving us extraordinary masterpieces in every field of music. Already renowned in Italy, Handel made himself known in London with Rinaldo in 1711, which was such a success that he decided to remain in England for good. It is still regarded as one of his greatest operas. Set during the Crusades, Rinaldo is a lavish spectacle that tells a story of love, magic, struggles for power and ultimate reconciliation. Pier Luigi Pizzi's acclaimed production brings us into a 'dreamlike, unreal... world of spells and incantations'. (Epoca). This production by Pier Luigi Pizzi, conceived in 1985 for Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, has traveled since to some twenty major opera houses worldwide. Discounting practical cuts and a few displacements of musical numbers, it's durable attraction lies in the gorgeous costumes and scenery, a stylish paragon of Hyperbaroque eschewing both literalism and cheap provocation. It is performed at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which was the first theatre to reopen after lockdown. The set design and direction perfectly respond to the current safety measures.

For the first time in modern times, Festival della Valle d'Itria stages the Neapolitan version of Handel's Rinaldo, a pastiche with a Mediterranean allure which Leonardo Leo assembled in 1718 and which was considered lost until a few years ago. The story behind this most rare opera is captivating: the score of Handel’s masterpiece was illegally brought to Naples by the castrato singer Nicolò Grimaldi, who first interpreted Rinaldo in London. Once in Italy, the work was rehashed by Leo as well as other local composers, who adapted it to the taste of the local Neapolitan public, adding some intermezzos and amusing characters. Director Giorgio Sangati turns this work into a “ba-rock” opera set in the 1980’s, where the struggle between Christians and Turks becomes a battle between pop-rock singers (the Christians) and dark-metal ones (the Turks). These two factions represent two opposite perspectives on love and life. Conductor Fabio Luisi is at the head of the baroque Ensemble La Scintilla, a group of specialists in the baroque repertoire. Excellent reviews for the vocal cast who endured an almost 4 hour performance, special mentions to Carmela Remigio (Armida) who was defined “vocally majestic and most convincing in her acting skills”, whereas Teresa Iervolino (Rinaldo) impressed the critics for her vocal and acting skills en travesti and her ability “to convey all the melancholic shades of Handel’s music” (Luca Ciammarughi, classicaviva.com).

This, one of Handel's most approachable, delightful, and least-confusing operas, dating from 1709--his "Italian" period--has been well recorded in performances led by John Eliot Gardiner (Philips) and Nicholas McGegan (Harmonia Mundi). Both are complete--and more than three hours long. This present recording pares down the opera to two hours and 45 minutes--mostly in the recitatives (which are wonderfully written, dramatic, and help develop character, but also which, much to my shame, I didn't miss a bar of), and in the loss of two or three arias. (At the close of the opera, Juno descends to bless the marriage of Ottone and Poppea; here her music is missing, and that's a loss.) Even in such a "reduced" state the work's witty competition between two manipulative women--Agrippina, who wants her son Nero to be emperor and will do almost anything to get him there, and Poppea, who loves the slandered Ottone and wants the power that will come with his being named emperor--and the interplay of the lusty Nero, the somewhat slow-witted Claudius, and Agrippina's hangers-on, Pallas and Narcissus, is vivid and clear.

The cast is excellent, with a few standouts. Thierry Grégoire, as Ottone, rises to great heights in his second-act lament, complete with stunning, sad trills. Ingrid Perruche's Poppea is a tough cookie from the start, and she cajoles throughout. She has a lovely tone and is fluent in coloratura; she makes much of all of her arias, but she really shines in the last act's "Bel piacer". Nigel Smith sings Claudius' music with proper pomposity, and even manages the low-Cs in his second-act aria. Veronique Gens' Agrippina is conniving and rich-toned; indeed, the role lies in an almost mezzo range and she seems perfectly comfortable. Philippe Jaroussky, a very high, bright, fluent countertenor, takes some getting used to--he sounds much like a woman most of the time--but he's a brave, expressive singer and he creates a Nero who vibrates. The others in the cast are very good, although Fabrice di Falco, the Narciso, begins by sounding like an old lady.

Jean-Claude Malgoire's leadership is bright and perky, with the recits paced conversationally, and his band plays well--the winds are particularly spicy. This is a live recording, and at the start Jaroussky is off-mike for a minute and occasionally other voices are not quite centered, but the audience is remarkably quiet. A duet in Act 1 for Claudio and Poppea ends a bit raggedly, but the "liveness" of the occasion excuses it. In short, this is recommended--it's a good show.
--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL: Veronique Gens, soprano; Philippe Jaroussky, male alto; Ingrid Perruche, soprano; Nigel Smith, baritone; Thierry Gregoire, male alto; Bernard Deletre, bass; Fabrice Di Falco, male soprano; AlainBuet, bass; La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy/Jean-Claude Mal GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL: Agrippina.

Spanish music reached a peak early in the 20th century, with Enrique Granados’ Goyescas numbered amongst the crowning masterpieces of its day. Infused with the innovations of Debussy and Ravel, and inspired by the colors and emotional depth of Goya’s paintings and engravings, the Goyescas are like brilliant and psychologically elaborate improvisations filled with seductively ornamented harmonies. The cycle also conceals a narrative of love and death that Granados would later develop into an opera. Multi-award-winning pianist Viviana Lasaracina’s playing was admired for its ‘beautiful liquid tone’ and summed up as ‘breathtaking’ in the New York Concert Review.

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Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes was among the many musicians who travelled to Italy to master the language and the rules of operatic works. He studied in Milan and succeeded in having a few operas staged at Italian venues, before returning to Brazil where he was hailed as the most famous living national composer. Gomes felt compelled to commit his work to the country’s anti-slave cause, which was still legal practice then. Lo schiavo was therefore conceived as a politically engaged work. However, the issue was rather volatile and the composer had to change the contemporary time setting to a more distant one. In Brazil the opera was a triumph, but elsewhere it failed to gain popularity and soon fell into oblivion. This recording of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari’s production documents the opera’s first performance in modern times and reveals Gomes’ flamboyant richness of melodic creativity, his sound grasp of construction, and a technical mastery of the theatrical mechanisms that are always of the highest level. “The most popular title of the entire Brazilian repertoire. The most represented and, perhaps, the most loved one.” (John Neschling, conductor)

DONIZETTI: Zingara (La)

6 Discs for the price of 2!
Perfectly pleasant music in every way. A set of 6 discs filled with elegant tuneful pieces that will sound brand new to many ears.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was born in Bratislava. From a very tender age his career was blessed with success. Mozart, who had heard him perform on the piano as a child, took him under his protective wing and gave him lessons for about two years, offering him accommodation in his own house in Vienna. At the age of ten Hummel began to give concerts all over northern Europe, presenting himself as a child prodigy. On his return to Vienna he studied under the guidance of Haydn, Salieri and Albrechtsberger, met Beethoven, whose friend he was for many years, and was increasingly admired for his extraordinary virtuoso gifts as a pianist. In 1816 Hummel was appointed maestro di cappella in Stuttgart, then moved on to occupy the same post at the grand ducal court of Weimar, where he was to stay for the rest of his life.

In 2010 UNESCO declared the Song of the Sibyl part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as one of the most fascinating documents of Medieval European culture. A prophetess of Apollo, foreteller of misfortunes and calamities, the Sibyl entered the Christian world as the earliest announcer of Christ’s coming and of his return on Doomsday. The text was sung over a suggestive melody that has survived to our day across seventeen centuries, handed down through various manuscripts and languages. This release features the Catalan version of the Song performed in all its expressive intensity by the poignant interpretation of the native language singer Eugenia Amisano, accompanied by the instrumentalists and voices of the Musicaround Ensemble. The programme also includes a selection of rare pieces related by content, in a journey that reveals how the Sibyl’s prophecy sounds at this particular time in history, and proving surprisingly topical. The transcriber, orchestrator and conductor is Vera Marenco who, working on the variety of instrumental and vocal forces and with a particular care for the choral parts, balances the need for a neat, contemporary reading with the popular origin of the rite.

Rome was a center of Western instrumental music for the entire 17th century, and for a good portion of the 18th century. Many of the most influential composers of the time met in this cultural melting pot, which created a style that would influence music globally over the next centuries. Arcangelo Corelli was one of these prominent artists who lived and worked with the Roman instrumental music school in the late 17th century. The composers which followed, Valentini, Locatelli, Castrucci, and Germiniani, are also featured on this release, giving a broad overview of the “Roman School.”

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Pietro il Grande, kzar delle Russie – composed when Donizetti was 22 years old – was the first of the composer’s operas to receive more than one production. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the work’s première in 2019, the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo staged this rare melodramma burlesco in a new critical edition. The influence of Rossini and Mozart is clear, but the young Donizetti still managed to create a fresh and lively work that displayed early evidence of his mature style. This Donizetti Festival performance received widespread international acclaim, with a cast of excellent singers and a unique staging by Ondadurto Teatro (Marco Paciotti and Lorenzo Pasquali), influenced by Russian avant-garde art of the early 20th century.

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Le nozze in villa (‘The Wedding in the Villa’) tells the story of Sabina and the young Claudio. They are in love, but this match goes against the will of her father, who wants her to marry the Schoolmaster Trifoglio. Misunderstandings and tensions between city emancipation and provincial narrow-mindedness are resolved, and romance ultimately triumphs thanks to the alliance of ‘gracefulness, faith and youth’. This early and virtually unknown opera buffa by Donizetti is full of Rossini-influenced lyrical inventiveness and beautiful arias. Specially restored for the 2019 Bergamo Festival, this revival brings out all of the opera’s ‘sparkling spirit and melodiousness’ (bachtrack.com).

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This opera, which had fallen into oblivion, was revived in 1973 in the Dutch city of Zaanstad (the Saardam of the libretto) and staged at Bergamo’s Teatro Sociale as part of the Donizetti Festival in a new critical edition made for the Donizetti Foundation by Alberto Sonzogni. In the plot, the Tsar Peter the Great works incognito as a carpenter at the shipyard of Sardaam to acquire technical knowledge to carry back home. On the podium, the knowledgeable Roberto Rizzi Brignoli leads the orchestra of the Donizetti Opera, assisted by the internationally renowned cinema director Davide Ferrario. In the cast, Andrea Concetti (a successful artist who has sung throughout the world) is joined by singers who are emerging in the belcanto repertoire, such as Giorgio Caoduro, Juan Francisco Gatell, Irina Dubrovskaya and Aya Wakizono.

Dvorak had an ambivalent relationship with Classical and Romantic traditions, something that is clearly exemplified in his piano trios. The Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 is a daring late work that uses popular moods and freer forms consisting of six Dumky – a melancholic and poetic musical form that draws from the composer inexhaustible melodic creativity. The Piano Trio in F minor, Op. 65 was influenced by the death of the composer’s mother and also by Dvorak having heard Brahms’ Piano Quintet, Op. 34, a work composed in the same key. Cyclic elements and fiery drama permeate the writing. “Individually excellent, they are even more impressive together”, wrote the Gazzetta di Mantova after a concert by the Italian-Swiss Trio des Alpes, thereby describing one of this Trio’s essential qualities: three independent, all-round successful personalities meeting as a trio. What attracts them is the quintessence of chamber music: dialogue, a shared sound and the blending of three instruments into a single whole.

Francois Couperin, known as ‘le grand’, won renown when, at the early age of 25 in 1693, he was appointed to a high position in Louis XIV’s private chapel. In the following years he compiled the core of his greatest works, the four monumental Pieces de clavecin, which represent the apex of his compositional mastery with a refined use of counterpoint and a galant taste for embellishments and rich, often subtly melancholic characterization. This album features eight preludes from Couperin’s L’Art de toucher le clavecin to create small suites that freely use pieces from the first two books of the Pieces de clavecin.