Anfossi

La finta giardiniera was a resounding success: after the first performance 1774 in Rome, the opera was translated into several languages and staged in many other European cities and inspired Mozart to write an opera of the same title. This world premiere recording by the ensemble l'arte del mondo shows the exceptional skills of this little-known composer. The Spanish Catalan soprano Nuria Rial is famous for her shining, crystal clear and beautiful voice and is one of the best baroque voices for baroque arias. She was described as "a silvery sounding voice, as clear as a bell."

The Clemenza di Tito, which goes back to an original libretto by Pietro Metastasio, known even the educated music lover in general only in the version of Mozart (1791), which represents a late culmination of the genus Opera seria. The material was particularly popular in the Age of Enlightenment, no less than 46 different versions are known, some come from greats of the musical life of the time such as Hasse, Gluck, Jommelli, Traetta, Anfossi and Myslivecek. Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785) was already a mature man and highly respected composer when he created his version for the Venice carnival season in 1760. It was his 65th opera, but there is no sign of fatigue in the score.

“A strong and pleasing voice, in both high and low notes – a combination which one rarely encounters,” ran one contemporary report of Catarina Cavalieri, the soprano who created Konstanze in Die Entführung. Though I’d put it rather less laconically, that verdict holds equally good for Diana Damrau, whose new Mozart recital includes two arias composed for Cavalieri, “Martern aller Arten” and Elvira’s “Mi tradì” (added for the 1788 Viennese revival of Don Giovanni). The glamorous German soprano, now in her mid-thirties, made her international reputation as a sensational Queen of the Night and Zerbinetta.