Based on a ponderous libretto by Metastasio (who defined his own work as “stellar”) Leonardo Vinci’s dramma per musica was premiered in Venice in 1726 and was triumphantly acclaimed. Since then, Siroe, Re di Persia was put to music by composers such as Vivaldi, Handel, Hasse, and Galuppi, to mention just a few. The story uses some of the elements of the plot of Partenope, almost as if it were a sequel moved to Persia. Siroe’s plot revolves around a family mystery mingled with passions, traitors en travesti, fatherly affection and filial honesty that echoes Shakespeare’s King Lear. Performed in concert version at Teatro San Carlo of Naples in 2018, this rare opera was chosen to open the theatre’s 281st season. Conductor Antonio Florio , specialist of the Neapolitan Baroque repertoire, revised the score.
In this very appealing perfomance, Roberta Ivernizzi is in lovely form as Statira, shaping her music with with expressive detail and Dionisia di Vico brings a clarion mezzo with pungent low notes to Cloridaspe's music…Antonio Florio leads the able period-instrument ensemble Capella de'Turchini with style and verve.
World premiere recording featuring a superb performance presented by Antonio Florio and a cast of true Baroque specialists. This opera waited almost three centuries before its rediscovery by Antonio Florio and the Turchini orchestra. Founded in 1987 by Antonio Florio, the ensemble I Turchini consists of instrumentalists and singers living and working in Naples who specialize in the performance of Neapolitan music from the 17th and 18th centuries and in the rediscovery of music by highly-gifted composers who are now largely unknown.
Starting with the `Passione', this is a meditation on Christ's Passion consisting mainly of a `Dialogo' between the Virgin Mary (soprano Emanuela Galli) and St John (Giuseppe Naviglio, bass), with contributions from a pair of angels and others. The music is vivid and demonstrative, with lovely vocal passages and some wonderful duetting, all very finely sung. The lively accompaniment from period instruments is superb, and it's all directed with spirit and inspiration by Antonio Florio.
Antonio Florio et son équipe de la Cappella de'Turchini nous ont habitués à de passionnantes découvertes dans le répertoire de leur ville de Naples, au passé musical si riche et pourtant délaissé par la plupart des musiciens.
One of the causes of the ‘crisis’ in the music industry is the fact that too many works are recorded over and over again. There are innumerable CDs with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons or Pergolesi’s Stabat mater. But once in a while someone has the imagination to perform and record a completely unknown piece by a composer hardly anybody has ever heard about. Antonio Florio is one of those creative minds who concentrates on little-known repertoire. In the last decade or so he has explored the musical past of his city, Naples. This time he presents a composition by an Italian who, for the largest part of his life, worked in Vienna. Badia was born in Verona and went to Innsbruck at a young age.
Antonio Florio et son équipe de la Cappella de'Turchini nous ont habitués à de passionnantes découvertes dans le répertoire de leur ville de Naples, au passé musical si riche et pourtant délaissé par la plupart des musiciens.
Ce Vinci-là est un maître de l'opera buffa napolitain et, pour le Carnaval de 1722, excelle à emmener ces «Fiancés en galère» sur les flots de la pétulance dialectale et macaronique la plus débridée. Musique de lumière et de bonne humeur, nouvelle réussite de la série «Tesori di Napoli» que mène Antonio Florio, avec la verve irrésistible de toute son équipe chantante et violinante.