Florio

If Naples, under the reforming wing of Caravaggio, experienced a golden age in the pictorial arts in the 17th century, the same holds true for musical composition. Antonio Florio unveils for us today the musical treasures of this dazzing era nourished by the expressive opulence of the predecessors of A. Scarlatti. A roster of remarkable soloists gives life and flesh to one of the scores exemplifying Neapolitan devotion. The casting dazzles through its presence and its incantatory illumination: Gloria Banditelli is Rosalia, thrilling, sensual, passionate. La Colomba follows on the style of Provenzale's operas. It solidifies the social ascension of the musician to the court of the viceroy, since the work was premiered at the Palace in 1670 by the figliuoli of the Conservatory of Santa Maria di Loreto, of which he was choir director. But this bountiful drama fits into the cycle of other sacred projects by Provenzale: one can attribute to him a "life" of Teresa d'Avila, one of San Gennaro, another of Santa Rosa.

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.

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.

A new Antonio Florio-directed recording from Glossa, once more focusing on a famous Italian singer from the Baroque era, again features the gorgeous vocal qualities of the modern-day Italian interpreter of such music, Roberta Invernizzi. This new and glorious succession of virtuoso arias captivated audiences in Roman theatres through the vocal chords of one eminent singer from 1718 onwards…

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.

Très jeune, Giovanni Paisiello connut un grand succès, aussi bien en Italie qu'à l'étranger. Il est surtout réputé pour son Barbier de Séville (1782) d'après Beaumarchais, déjà, qui influença bien évidemment Rossini et aussi Mozart pour ses Noces de Figaro. Ludwig van Beethoven lui-même utilisera une aria La Molinara "Nel cor piu non mi sento" pour composer une de ses oeuvres. Un autre opéra, créé en 1789, connut un renouveau récent grâce à la superbe interprétation du rôle-titre par Cecilia Bartoli : Nina, ossia la Pazza per Amore.

The indefatigable Antonio Florio, along with his associates from Cappella Neapolitana, has succeeded, with a work by Donato Ricchezza, in unearthing another major rediscovery from the Neapolitan Baroque. The labours of Florio – coupled with the ability to turn dry notes on a dusty manuscript into a sumptuous audio feast – can be no better demonstrated than with this release on Glossa of Los Santos Niños: “Oratorio di San Giusto e San Pastore”, written by a composer who was a pupil of the great Francesco Provenzale.

With I Viaggi di Faustina Glossa is launching a new collection focusing on famous Italian singers from the 17th and 18th centuries, whose travels bear witness to the intense level of artistic activity then taking place in the major cities of Europe. Faustina Bordoni, the brilliant diva with whom we begin this series pursued her career mainly in Naples (the principal focus of this CD) and Venice, but also in cities such as Bologna, Parma, Dresden and London. These were cities hosting – with great success – operas by Johann Adolph Hasse (Bordoni’s husband), Nicola Popora, Leonardo Vinci, Francesco Mancini and Domenico Sarro; most of these composers are represented on this first selection of wonderful arias.

Coming after recent exposure to Pierre Audi’s puerile attempts to stage Gluck, this is akin to arriving in the Elysian Fields, being a beautifully staged Baroque production by Gustavo Tambascio of a splendid opera by Leonardo Vinci. Partenope, or Rosmira fedele to give the opera its correct name, was first given at San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice in 1725. It was the Neapolitan composer’s second opera in quick succession for Venice, following the success of his Ifigenia in Tauride some months earlier. Working hurriedly, Vinci not only drew on the recitatives used in the 1722 setting of Silvio Stampiglia’s libretto Partenope by another Neapolitan composer, Domenico Sarro (1679-1744), but also reused some of his own arias from earlier operas. Surprisingly, despite such an ad hoc assemblage, the opera works admirably on the stage… This review has also been published in Early Music Review.