Juditha Triumphans by Alessandro De Marchi

I listened to Vivaldi’s oratorio Juditha Triumphans. Vivaldi is said to wrote four oratorios but this oratorio is the only one survived. It was performed by Allessandro de Marchi with the ensemble, Academia Montis Regalis.

All the oratorios up to Vivaldi’s times were staged. Oratorio is usually little less lavish than opera but other than this, there is no so much difference between them musically. And this is Vivaldi’s great work of art. It is filled with such beautiful, intimate and passionate music.

This oratorio is the dramatic bloody story of the killing and decapitation of the enemy general by a young beautiful heroine who tries to save her own country by doing so.

Magdalena Kozena sang the heroine, Juditha. And she is wonderful in this role. She’s highly expressive eloquent singer. Her elegant beautiful voice has many different qualities such as freshness, sensuality and decisiveness. Her singing is agile, passionate and her interpretation is deeply mature.

The rest of the other singers, Maria Jose Trullu (Holfernes), Marina Comparato, (Vegaus),  Anke Hermann (Abra) and Tiziana Carraro (Ozias) are all also wonderfully mature singers.

The conductor, Alessandro De Marchi and the musicologist, Michael Talbot wrote very interesting detailed historical and musicological production notes. The sound quality of the ensemble reflected such detailed musical sensibility and expressed very good authentic period sounds. Their sounds are beautifully polished and wonderfully tuned with the singers.

This is wonderful production. But at the same time, their orchestration is also my only and the biggest complaint for this production. Their orchestration is subtle and I don’t think they captured the exuberance of Vivaldi’s music well enough, which is the best part of his musical quality. Other than this, it could be such perfect production.

La Nemica D’amore Fatta Amante by Chiara Banchini

I listened to Giovanni Bononcini’s serenata La Nemica D’amore Fatta Amante (“Enemy of love without a lover”) performed by Ensemble 415 under the direction of violinist, Chiara Banchini.

Their performance is wonderful and beautiful accompanying by sensitive and elegant sophistication. All the three singers, Adriana Fernandez (soprano), Martine Oro (countertenor) and Furio Zanasi (baritone) are also wonderful. Adriana Fernandez also gave me the strong impression by the excelled beauty of her voice in L’Orfeo by Jordi Savall previously.

The whole album is filled with the soothing beautiful sounds. It is wonderfully thought through and well directed album.

This serenata has the very similar love triangle story to Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo but much less harshness. Not only the storyline, the over all music has the very similar feel to Handel’s music.

According to the production note, Bononcini had worked with Handel at the Royal Academy of Music, as a composer for 13 years while Handel was the music director there. They even performed together, Bononcini as cellist and Handel as harpsichordist. They were rivals as composers but according to the production note, Handel who was 20 years junior often borrowed music from Bononcini (there was 44 years difference between their compositions of  “Ombra mai fu”.)

They could have been bitter rivals, but as far as I can tell by just listen to Bononcini’s music, they have so much common musically. They have very similar musical sensibility. They both had the keen sense and excellence for the dramatic, melodious and lyrical tunes with very similar elegant sophistication.

There are number of arias which are very beautiful in this album. Bononcini especially wrote the most moving thoughtful arias for the role of Martine Oro with very beautiful cello lines as basso continuo.

I must say that Handel was genius while Bononcini was extraordinary talented, who also should have been more famous.

Aci, Galatea e Polifemo by Emmanuelle Haim

Emmanuelle Haim directed this Handel’s cantata/serenata with the orchestration by Le Concert d’Astree in 2003.

Contralto, Sara Mingardo sang Galatea. She’s impressively wonderful as always. 

Soprano, Sandrine Piau sang Aci. As the same way as Mingardo, she is also exquisite as singer. Her singing is impressively mature and her pearl-like rich voice is very beautiful, which matched well with Sara Mingardo’s.  But at times, her high soprano notes sounded overly ornamented a little in this production.

Bass, Laurent Naouri sang Polifemo with warm beautiful deep rich bass voice. He’s also very mature singer and sang very well.  And because of these reasons, his Polifemo also felt less scary and less dramatic.

Comparing to the first rate quality of these singers, the quality of Haim’s orchestration was somewhat downgraded though they played very well. I expected her music to be vibrant, agile and muscularly tight as her later works. So it was little surprised that her music was much softer and less focused. It is very understandable because this was her first recording production. 

Aci, Galatea e Polifemo by Antonio Florio

I listened to bass, Christopher Purve sang aria “Fra l’ombre e gl’orrori” in the Emmanuelle Haim’s 10th anniversary concert. I just loved his voice and loved how he sang it. And I loved this aria by Handel very much. It amazed me how it had such extreme range of high notes and low notes right next to each other without breaking the wonderful melodious stream of the aria. Since then, I wanted to listen to Handel’s cantata/serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo which contains this aria.

This production was orchestrated by Cappella della Pieta de’ Turchini and conducted by Antonio Florio. Their orchestration was lively and attentive with very good sound intonations and colors.

They made this serenata into operatic production. The stage directions by Davide Livermore who also did the set design were very interesting. The stage looked like old, run-down abandoned room with the floor covered by the wave stream-trailed sea sands that looked like it has just rushed into the room from the two big back entrances over the period of many years.  The wooden room walls are distorted. And the various images that matched each scene were shown on the back walls behind the room walls through entrances and windows. The whole set looked like gothic as much as mythical.

The story is based on the mythological story about the lovers, Aci and Galatea who are threatened by tyrannical giant, Polifermo. He loves Galatea and tries to have her while constantly threatening them with forces. 

There were only three characters in this serenata but besides the three singers who played these roles, this production also used the doubles played by the mime actors. These actors who dressed and moved as the mirror projections of the singers were used to amplify the emotions of the singers at each scene. They had many detailed acting coordination between the singers and the actors. This type of stage direction can backfire but this production did it tastefully.

Bass, Antonio Abete played Polifemo. Musically, this is great bass role. His wonderful but dry higher bass voice didn’t have warmth but had dramatic intensity, which suited this violent character well. I previously saw him when he played Seneca in William Christie’s L’Incolonazione di Poppea. He tended to sing much faster than usual bass singers. This also gave the characters he plays such highlighted intensity. 

Soprano, Ruth Rosique played Aci, the shepherd. I first listened to her when she sang Drusilla in L’Incolonazione di Poppea by Harry Bicket. The beautiful texture of her voice was memorable. She also impressed me with her beautiful virtuosity and rich singing expression when she sang Aristea in the pasticcio album, O’limpeade conducted by Markellos Chryssicos. She has round rich soprano voice with wonderful vocal flexibility. Her voice reminds me the combination of the young freshness of Magdalena Kozena and the gracefulness of Victoria de los Angeles.

And she sang Aci very well. She’s powerful singer as much as Sara Mingardo.

Contralto, Sara Mingardo played Galatea who is half ninfa and half divine. As always, she sang her role amazingly. She’s exceptional artist whose interpretation of music is humanly rich and deep. Her mature mesmerizing singing might sound effortless to listeners. And yet, you just feel that she puts so much technique into her singing to achieve the effects. She’s great singer.

Handel was only 23 years old when he presented this work for the wedding cerebration. The following year, he wrote his first successful opera Agrippina.

His Agrippina is wonderfully written opera. But I prefer this serenata to Agrippina simply because the music is more intimate and heart-felt.

By listening to these earliest works by him, it amazed me to realize the fact that genius is not simply made but be born.  Handel was genius. His music is filled with the sheer overwhelming beauty, psychological sophistication and affectionate human warmth. 

L’Olimpiade: The opera by Markellos Chryssicos

This libretto for L’Olimpiade by Metastasio was widely popular enough to be used by over 60 different composers from 1733 to the end of the century. This album is the highlights from the new pasticcio opera, L’Olimpiade with 25 arias but without recitatives written by 16 different composers, which includes the world premier recordings of 16 arias.

This is one breathtakingly beautiful album. The orchestration by Markellos Chryssicos & Venice Baroque Orchestra was lively, elegant and sophisticated. Markellos Chryssicos looked very young but his sounds were thoughtful and very mature throughout the album. Though he played my most familiar Vivaldi aria, “Mentre dormi amor fomenti” much slower than I prefer.

All the performers had very beautiful voices. Every sound each singer produced was as smooth and sweet as the textures of silk or satin. Many of the aria compositions were probably not notably exceptional. And yet, all the musicians in this album were sublime, they performed them so gorgeously.

I fell in love with Romina Basso all over again. As Megacle, she sang the best aria in the album, “Se cerca, se dice ‘l’amico dov’e?’”  composed by Cherubini most wonderfully. It was beautiful, emotional and passionate rendition. She also showcased her wonderful virtuosity in her opening aria, “Lo seguitai felice” composed by Jommelli.

I’ve never heard Ruth Rosique who sang Aristea before. She’s the jewel of my new discovery. She had gorgeous, silky graceful voice. I was taken in by the beauty of her voice and singing expression by every aria she sang. Her “Tu di saper procure” composed by Paisiello was especially gorgeous.

Karina Gauvin as Argene was simply wonderful. She’s pure delight to listen to.

Franzisaka Gottwald as Licida was very good also. She had little darker shades in her voice than other singers in this album and had very silky voice as the rest of the singers.

Nicholas Spanos as Aminta was wonderful. I loved his “Siam navi all’onde algenti” composed by Hasse.

The only chest voice singer in the album, Nicholas Phan as Clistene was also wonderful. I once complained about the weakness of his upper register when he sang Lurcano in Handel’s Ariondante of the concert version conducted by Alan Curtis. Comparing to the performance, both his voice and singing have matured impressively since. There was no weakness in his upper range any more. And his voice was much fuller and richer. There was rich sweetness to his beautiful tenor voice.

This album is very beautiful and heavenly. I can listen to it over and over again.

Farnace by George Petrou

This production of Vivaldi’s Farnace was broadcasted on Arte Live Web. It is orchestrated by Concert Koln and conducted by George Petrou. It brought the same edition and the casts from the opera album conducted by Diego Fasolis.

Initially, I really wanted to see exact same performers including Fasolis & Il Barocchisti for the stage because they have highly polished, beautiful agile music. But this production by George Petrou & Concert Koln was also wonderful and exciting. Their music was very lively, young and flesh with very good sounds.

The stage director is Lucinda Childs who is ballet choreographer. Her stage is very beautiful. She has keen eyes for visual arts. Her stage set is contemporary and artistically stylish. I liked how they used lightings that made some of the outdoor scenes look like artificial but outside.

She has rather weak acting direction though. Replacing the lack of acting, she used quiet bit of stylish ballet dancing to convey the singers’ moods and emotions at each scene, which are arty and also can be felt little overused towards the end.

All the singers sang wonderfully. These are gorgeous and powerful singers.

Max Emanuel Cencic sang Farnace. He’s the best to sing this role. His voice was full, rich and exciting. He sang the dramatic aria “Gelido in ogni vena” replacing much sentimental “Perdona, o figlio amato” in the opera, which I liked it better this way.

Ruxandra Donose who sang Tamiri had such dramatic stage presence. She had both dramatic weight with her singing and acting.

Mary-Ellen Nesi as Berenice was wonderful though her voice was little less full than when she sang in the album (it’s live and singer’s voice condition can change daily.)

Juan Sancho as Pompeo sang well with beautiful tenor voice but his singing felt he’s not all there completely.  It may be because his voice was little higher. I preferred Daniel Behr in the album who had lower and fuller voice than Sancho’s.

Emiliano Gonzalez Toro as Aquilio was even much better than when he sang in the album. His voice was much richer on this stage.

I really wanted to see Ann Hallenberg as Selinda. Instead, Carol Garcia sang the role. She had the similar voice texture with Hallenberg but did not have rich texture or depth like Hallenberg’s. And she had much drier voice. She had powerful voice though which she showcased in her last aria, “Ti vantasti mio guerriero” wonderfully.

I also loved Karin Gauvin as Gilade in the album. She had such deliciously gorgeous soprano voice. Instead, this role on the stage was sung by Vivica Genaux. She is such amazing singer who had different kind of deliciousness. I always compare her voice with watermelon for she has such juicy beautiful voice. Like Cecilia Bartoli, her wonderful techniques can get in the way of her singing expression at times, but more than that, her singing has such mutuality and richness. She almost could take over Max Emanuel Cencic in this production.

One of the interesting things about Vivaldi’s music is the fact that it is like ameba or sponge. It depends on performer, same music of his could sound very different. That’s how flexible his music is. This difference is not very obvious in other composers’ music. This is one of many reasons why his music is always timelessly refreshing.

Giulio Cesare by Giovanni Antonini

I watched this production of the Handel’s opera on the website of French TV Arte. It was streaming video but my Internet connection was not so streaming with lots of stopping and skipping. Therefore, my review below might need adjustment accordingly in future.

This production has dazzling casts. All the singers sang wonderfully with each had strong individuality.

I prefer soprano or high mezzo-soprano to sing the vocally highly demanding role of Cleopatra. Cecilia Bartoli’s very Mediterranean mezzo-soprano voice can be heavy or low for this type of role. Her singing techniques are always very impressive with great range and capacity and the same token, they could be forceful, raw and simply too much when singing should be more natural and unforced.

I listened to some of her Cleopatra before and I was worry about all these things. But as whole, they came force as expected but also she showed wonderful lightness and great sensibility especially aria like “V’adoro, pupille” (yes, you better close your eyes while listening to this wonderful rendition.) As always, I had to be amazed and impressed with her ability to create profound vocal drama in some of the arias.

Andreas Scholl as Cesare was wonderful but somehow his singing was little less magnificent than when he sang in his previous production. The clarity of his voice felt diminished little.

I adore both Anne Sofie von Otter and Philippe Jaroussky as singers. But I prefer much fuller and lower voice ranges for these roles than theirs. Simply Otter’s light voice couldn’t capture the weight of her role.  But nevertheless, they sang their roles wonderfully specially their duet was very emotional. (And watching these two singers I most admire singing together simply tickles my soft spot.)

My favorite Cleopatra’s crazy half-brother, Christophe Dumaux who sang Tolomeo was in his best condition. His Tolomeo is always exciting to watch and listen. This character must be the most fun to play with. This time, he looked like a dangerous gang leader with ancient tattoos and bladed hairstyle with snakeskin jacket and pants.  This time, he had less action and more masturbation (!)

The rest of the singers such as Ruben Drole, Jochen Kowalski and Peter Kalman sang very well.

This is one of the best operas with gorgeous castings, so how it could be ended up with such cheap stage direction? I felt so sorry for the singers who have to take these stupid acting directions seriously. Especially when Ann Sofie von Otter had to put her head into the mouth of the giant cheap toy crocodile or the fake cheap toy snake Philippe Jaroussky had to handle more than Lorraine Hunt Lieberson once did. And Cecilia Bartorini had to act sexy while riding on the rocket like Dr. Strange Love when she only looked a cheap prostitute.

I thought Peter Sellers is worst stage director but now he has competitor. At least Peter Sellers has sharp satire to his cheapness, but this similar stage direction set in 50’s somewhere in oil rich region does not even have it despite of the facts that it has some current political inputs such as Sesto as suicide bomber, hooding of prisoner Cleopatra, oil dealings and rolling military tanks.

But more than anything else, the biggest complaint I had with this production is the orchestration by Giovanni Antonini & Il Giardino Armonico. It was rather subtle and not very lively orchestration with little colors. I don't know how could these individually strong singers ended up with somehow such weak orchestration?