Vogl

Around the year 1600, a group of Florentine aristocrats, inspired by ancient Greek drama, gave birth to opera. They intended to move and glorify human passions in such a strong way that the spectator's soul would be cleansed of these passions. This was the process that Aristotle called 'catharsis'. Xavier Sabata grasps this highly intense moment at the heart of the destiny of legendary heroes of Baroque opera. A fascinating album by the author of Bad Guys, accompanied by George Petrou and Armonia Atenea.

Alessandro Scarlatti’s 600-plus cantatas make him one of the more prolific exponents of a form that flourished in Italy in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Though he’s generally credited with standardising cantata form, his early essays in the genre were often imaginatively varied, as is shown by the delectable Arcadian Academy disc. Rather than the usual two or three da capo arias alternating with recitatives, the four secular cantatas here boast opening sinfonias, closing ariosos, large numbers of movements and a range of aria-types. Bella madre dei fiori, for example, experiments with a mix of poetic strophes and instrumental ritornelli. Even so, this formal ingenuity would be of limited interest were it not for Scarlatti’s gifts for attractive melody and sensitive illustration of his texts.