“La fida ninfa” by Vivaldi

I listened to Vivaldi’s opera “La fida ninfa” conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi and orchestrated by his orchestra, Ensemble Matheus.

When I first listened to this opera, I got the immediate impression that Vivaldi either hated or loved soprano singers so much because just like “Griselda”, this opera is also filled with highly vocally demanding torturous arias especially for soprano singers like Veronica Cangemi and Sandrine Piau.

The truth of the fact is that Vivaldi was violinist not singer. He composed for vocal as he composed for violin, just like that. The crazy notes must be really flying around all over inside of his head because human vocal cord is not as flexible as violin.

To answer to his demands, Veronica Cangemi truly has the vocal flexibility and agility of an Olympic athlete. The wonderful thing about her is that she also did not sacrifice emotional expressions for the sake of vocal technicality. As always, she is highly expressive even in this production. (Though it took for a while to get used to the idea that she sung as the male role instead of female roles she usually sings.)

Two baritones. Lorenzo Reggazo and Christian Senn are also wonderful. Christian Senn’s voice is much richer than when he sung on the stage of “Orlando Furioso”.

Contralto, Sarah Mingardo has wonderful voice. As the same way as Marie-Nicole Lemieux, she also has amazingly light, fine expressive beautiful voice as contralto.

Marie-Nicole Lemieux sung higher and lighter in this production than in any other productions I’ve listened to. She also showcased her wonderful voice agility. Her and Philippe Jaroussky’s voices are like two butterflies in their comical duet.

Philippe Jaroussky seems to shine high level of artistry in every production he’s involved (including Vivaldi’s “Elcole Sul Telmodonte”). But he is little less shiny in this production. Even though he sung one of my favorite Vivaldi’s arias,  “Ah, che non posso” very well and yet, I also thought the aria like “Qual serpe toturosa”, he could do better. This opera is probably not his cup of tea.

There are two singers who are surprisingly wonderful in this production.

One of them is Sandrine Piau. Her voice has purity and beauty of pearl shining brightly at night. Her singing has exceptional beauty and maturity. And every aria she sung, she sung so wonderfully.

The most surprising thing in the production is Topi Lehtipuu. His aria, “Deh, ti piega, deh, consenti” is amazingly emotionally moving. He sung the old father who was kidnapped along with his two young daughters. And in this aria, he desperately negotiates and begs his captor who is about to sell them to slave traders. He tells the captor to show them some mercy because the situation they’re in is where the captor could find himself in one day.

There is one more surprising thing. This is different from the other Vivaldi operas he has done; Jean-Christophe Spinosi’s orchestration in this opera is wonderfully rich and full. His “Orlando Furioso” was recorded in 2004, “Griselda” was in 2006 and this recording was done in 2008 (and his Handel’s “Messiah” was staged in 2010). So it seems like simply his orchestration sounds have refined and wonderfully matured over time. He’s wonderful conductor whose music is filled with so much affectionate human warmth.

Deh, ti piega, deh, consenti (Topi Lehtipuu)

Selve annose, erme foreste (Sandrine Piau)

Alma oppressa da sorte crudele (Sandrine Piau)

Destin avaro (Veronica Cangemi)

Dite, oimè! Ditelo, al fine (Veronica Cangemi)

Ah, che non posso, no (Philippe Jaroussky)

Perdo ninfa, chera una dea (Lorenzo Regazzo)

Cento donzelle (Marie-Nicole Lemieux)