A Morte il Tiranno

Corruption? Betrayal? Persecution? Tyranny? These subjects resonate with the current events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. They also provide the subject matter of many seventeenth-century musical works. Kate Lindsey has chosen to devote this second Baroque recital with the English ensemble Arcangelo directed by Jonathan Cohen (following Arianna in 2020, ALPHA576) to the figure of Nero. Scarlatti, Handel and Monteverdi wrote works focusing on this tragic protagonist and his entourage, including his mother Agrippina and his wives (Poppaea and Octavia). Interpreted with incredible intensity by the American mezzo-soprano, the programme features world premiere recordings of two cantatas: Alessandro Scarlatti’s La morte di Nerone (c.1690) and Bartolomeo Monari’s La Poppea (1685). Tenor Andrew Staples and soprano Nardus Williams join Kate Lindsey for duets from L’incoronazione di Poppea, including the sensual ‘Pur ti miro’.

Weltersteinspielung einer unbekannten Händel-Oper. Bei ANIMATO erscheint nun als Weltersteinspielung Händels selten gespielte Oper ORESTE, das den bekannten Iphigenie-Stoff vertont. Gezielt setzt das Ludwigsburger Label auf ein junges Instrumental-Ensemble unter der Leitung von Tobias Horn, der Besigheimer Bezirkskantor, Dirigent der Kantorei der Karlshöhe Ludwigsburg und international tätiger Konzertorganist ist. Seine Sänger besetzt er mit jungen Ensemblemitgliedern u.a. der Stuttgarter Staatsoper und des Opernstudios des Staatstheaters Stuttgart.

Véronique Gens's intense soprano shines in this program of tragic cantatas about a trio of fatally wronged Roman heroines written by the twentysomething Handel during his triumphant Italian sojourn. Here, luckless Lucrezia and abandoned Armida vacillate between love and hate for the men who wronged them and agitated Agrippina rages against the son who condemned her to death, the Emperor Nero. Gens is with these wracked souls all the way, bending her lovely voice to capture the verbal nuances of the texts; listen, for example, how she deadens her tone for Agrippina's "A me sol giunga la morte." Throughout, she stays within the stylistic frame of historically informed performance practices, as do her excellent accompanists.