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Daily album review 24: Fabulous countertenor madness in Leonardo Vinci opera L'Ataserse

By John Terauds on December 10, 2012

French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky as Artaserse.

The explosion of interest in Baroque opera has hit Neapolitan composer Leonardo Vinci, whose crowning achievement, L’Artaserse, gets a remarkable recording starring sensational French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.

Jaroussky is one of five countertenors in the cast: He is joined by Max Emanuel Cencic, Franco Fagioli, Valer Barna-Sabadus and Yuriy Mynenko, a sort of pan-European all-star team of this generation’s finest male altos.

The only other character in the opera is sung by a tenor, the also laudable Daniel Behle.

Conductor Diego Fasolis, leading Concerto Köln and the Choir of Swiss Radio Lugano, makes magic from begnning to end of this three-act, three-CD recording made in Cologne slightly over a year ago.

There is everything to love here, from powerful, flawless singing to a powerful libretto by Metastasio and Vinci’s robust, highly textured music brilliantly rendered on period instruments.

The comprehensive liner notes reveal a fascinating tale surrounding the short, colourful life of composer Vinci, aristocratically plucked from Calabrian obscurity to become one of the great stars of opera in Naples and Rome before dying from the consequences of an adulterous sexual adventure at the age of 34, shortly after the smash 1730 Roman premiere of Artaserse.

The love and respect for Ataserse was, according to the notes, proven by the opera’s continued life on European stages even after the composer’s death — something that almost never happened in the day.

It’s also easy to see why, with its need for five heroic countertenors, we are unlikely to ever see many productions.

The dramatic plot centres around the murder of Persian king Xerxes and machinations surrounding son Artaxerxes’ eventual succession to the throne. As was expected of a dramma per musica in the day, a last-minute twist ensures a happy ending and an opportunity for the chorus to sing the hero’s praises.

For all the album details, click here.

Fasolis and Concerto Köln presented a short run of Artaserse in Nancy for Opéra national de Lorraine last month. The only change in cast was the tenor.

Here is a clip from that production, the opera’s lone duet, “Tu vuoi ch’io viva o cara,” which comes near the end of the third act. The singers are Fagioli and Cencic. The next clip is of Jaroussky (as Artaserse) from near the end of art two, in the aria “Non conosco in tal momento.” The tenor is Juan Sancho:

John Terauds

 

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