Libero 09.08.2016

This set presents an extensive collection of works which George Frideric Handel wrote during his short but astoundingly fruitful stay in Italy. Here he met the great composers of the day, imbuing the rich Italian style, full of drama, cantabile and instrumental brilliance.

Conductor and pianist James Levine is one of the powerhouse figures of the classical music scene today. As a child he undertook both piano and violin; he was so accomplished on the violin that at the age of ten he played Mendelssohn's second violin concerto at a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra youth concert. He studied piano at various summer music festivals before enrolling at New York's Juilliard School, where he took conducting courses with Jean Morel and continued piano studies with Rosina Lhevinne.

Semiramide, based on a play by Voltaire about an ancient Assyrian queen, was Rossini's last Italian opera. Some five hours long in performance, it has always been subject to cuts from producers worried that it was a butt-breaker, but Rossini insisted that it be performed as written. He was right: its massive two acts have a logic and flow that do not flag. Despite its size and difficulty (check the hefty list of sponsors and patrons in the booklet), the opera is being revived increasingly often. The work has been called the last Baroque opera, with its tragic plot from antiquity encrusted with glittering, highly ornamented arias, and you might suppose that a performance stands or falls with the singers. This version certainly offers strong ones, including the superb pair of sopranos Albina Shagimuratova in the title role and Daniela Barcellona in the travesti or cross-dressing role of the commander Arsace.

Composing Floridante was not a happy experience for Handel. He had recently acquired a popular rival, Giovanni Bononcini, and was forced to work with a new librettist that was more interested in the poetry of his material than its stageworthiness. However, the most serious problem occurred halfway through writing the opera, in October 1721, when the soprano whom Handel had cast as Elmira fell ill. The directors of the opera house (the Royal Academy of Music, patronized by King George I) decided to replace her with a contralto, Anastasia Robinson, whose voice was more limited in range and agility, but who possessed strong political credentials: she was both Roman Catholic, and the mistress of the Earl of Peterborough. These were important assets to the aristocratic Roman Catholic faction that held sway in the Academy at that time. In turn, her former scheduled part, that of Rossane, was to be given to a soprano, Maddalena Salvai.

Bellini’s penultimate opera was received unenthusiastically at its premiere in 1833, and has never attained the popularity of Norma. Early this century it disappeared completely until revived in 1935, as part of the centennial commemoration of the composer’s death. In recent years, its tragic heroine, the wife of a Milanese duke, falsely accused of infidelity and executed at her husband’s command, has been portrayed by such notable bel canto specialists as Joan Sutherland, Leyla Gencer and June Anderson. This dramatically vigorous and well-constructed work contains some of Bellini’s finest and most characteristic melodies, among them a ravishingly beautiful trio, ‘Angiol di pace’. Its neglect for so many years is difficult to comprehend.

Semiramide is Rossini's last opera seria. The title role was written for his wife, Isabella Colbran. The extremely florid vocal style is often a vehicle for spectacular vocal display rather than an intrinsic part of the score. The ensemble-scenes (particularly the duos between Arsace and Semiramide) and choruses are also of a high order, as is the orchestral writing, which makes full use of a large pit. The work starts with a well-known overture, and throughout it calls for outstanding singers in the leading soprano and contralto roles. Semiramide is occasionally performed but is not part of the standard operatic repertoire.

Bullfrog (1976). Somewhat enjoyable hard rock/prog in the style of Jane, mainly. Singer Gerd Hoch has an astoundingly gruff, rough voice that's going to be hard for some listeners to take, but his style largely suits the music. Not really a whole lot of prog on the A-side, pretty much straight-up hard boogie rock. The last two tracks, both extending longer than ten minutes, are the reasons to get this album. Full of Floydian changes and an Eloy-like spaciness, they're well-done for this style of music. Nice layers of celestial synths and aggressive Hammond organ from keysman Harald Kaltencker. Italian drummer Bruno Perosa (whose prior prog pedigree extends to playing the percussion-y bits in "Canto Nomade per un Prigioniero Politico" on Banco's Io Sono Nato Libero album) even adds a cosmic recitation (in Italian!) at the beginning of "Desert Man"…

Alessandro Stradella was, along with Henry Purcell and Heinrich von Biber, among the most striking and idiosyncratic composers of the late seventeenth century. He is known principally for his cantatas on sacred subjects such as "La Susanna" and "San Giovanni Battista," which prefigure Handel's oratorios, and from which Handel borrowed freely. Stradella's musical eccentricities were paralleled by his irregular life. A member of the minor nobility, he ran through his inheritance while young, and thereafter supplemented his musical earnings by questionable financial dealings that incurred the anger of influential families.

A perfect example of the creativity and diversity of Antonio Vivaldi's musicmaking, the opera Dorilla in Tempe is an enchanting listen. From the pastoral and fairytale-like atmosphere of the story, to the prominent role of the choir (which sings the well known 'Spring') and the insertion of several spectacular arias by fellow composers (thereby creating a ‘pasticcio' opera, as was common at the time): everything combines to draw the listener in to the emotional twists and turns of Princess Dorilla in her valley of Tempe, Greece.