Allabastrina

With this production of Francesca Caccini’s 'La liberazione di Ruggerio dall'isola di Alcina', directed by Elena Sartori, an important stepping-stone in the development of 17th-century opera receives a superb new recording from Glossa. For much of her career - Caccini was a composer, a virtuoso singer, a teacher, a poet and a multi-instrumentalist - she worked at the Medici court, and was commissioned by the grand duchess of Tuscany, Maria Maddalena of Austria, to write this commedia in musica for performance in Florence in 1625.

The birth of opera began around 1600 in Florence, where this new genre was used to accompany important political events.

Born in Florence, the cradle of the Italian language, Jean‐Baptiste Lulli was the first Italian musician to settle and be fully accepted in France, at the prestigious and illustrious court of Versailles, the centre of refined taste. Lully not only accepted the French style, even more: he created it. His sacred music is splendidly dramatic, the orchestra is full and sonorous, with important roles for the wind and percussion instruments, a feast of colours, driving rhythms and ornaments!

This live recording, from the Huelgas Ensemble directed by Paul van Nevel, is the second version of this early baroque opera to appear within a few months. The first was from an ensemble combining Allabastrina, La Pifarescha and an excellent team of vocal soloists directed by Elena Sartori. I am not in a position to make a direct comparison between the two versions at the moment, but one obvious difference is that the present recording from Van Nevel takes 88 minutes and is spread over two CDs, whereas Elena Sartori’s team manages to squeeze the work onto one disc of 79 minutes.