Soloistscovartolo - CAVALLI: Arias and Duets from Didone, Egisto, Ormindo, Giasone and Calisto [CD]

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Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)Arias and DuetsAlthough this overview of Cavalli's music is necessarilycondensed, it nonetheless succeeds in painting a meaningfulpicture of both the nature of opera as it was developing inVenice at the time, and the composer's own artistic andcompositional talent. Cavalli was of course influenced byMonteverdi, yet he imbued his music with his ownindividual style, in effect setting the artistic seal on the restof the seventeenth century.One particularly distinctive element of Cavalli's musicis its singability (cantabilit?\xe1), especially evident in his duetsand in his expression of the sensuality omnipresent in post-Renaissance Venetian art and literature. Opera grew out ofthe Accademie, forums for artistic and literary debate andperformance, whose members were inspired by the tales ofthe Roman world (as viewed with considerable moral --and historical -- licence), and by Greek mythology (alsorevisited in such a way as to draw in and even titillateVenetian audiences).The tales told by these early operas had a lot incommon with our soap story-lines. Heroes undergo theunlikeliest of hardships, become involved in unrestrainedlove affairs, get caught out in embarrassing situations, andso on, only for everything to be rapidly unravelled for anunambiguously happy ending, removing all concerns fromthe minds of a rapt audience (the operatic star system hadnot yet established itself at this point). There was a sense ofliberation from the purely aural allusiveness of the madrigalform, as well as from the compositional and performancedifficulties also associated with it, and an increasing interestin the visual impact of the sets and costumes that were soonto become the norm. Madrigal quartets, quintets and sextetswere on their way out, seen as music for an aesthetic elite,to be replaced by the more approachable duets.There is perhaps an analogy to be drawn with our owntimes, in which the spoken and written word are beingreplaced by a TV videocracy, whose power is taking hold inthe same way as opera did in the seventeenth century. Byhappy coincidence, however, Cavalli was born at preciselythe right time and place, and his genius was translated intointricate, convoluted love stories and impetuous passionsand rages expressed with perfect aesthetic and expressivemusical symbiosis in masterly passacaglias. The Lamentcan be seen as a kind of condensed version of this artisticsensibility, an opera in miniature, and is therefore essentialto the history of opera (cf. the three Lamenti Barocchi CDsI have recorded with Naxos). This kind of love lyric, inwhich languor alternates with fury, and invective isfollowed by immediate repentence (\\What have I said?What unhappy ravings are these?) drew inspiration fromboth historical and contemporary episodes (Lament of theQueen of Sweden, Lament of Cinq-Mars), and then movedon to self-mockery in semi-serious laments (such as theLament of the Castrato - whose details are indelicate in theextreme but fa

Passata Dell'Armata

Smoderati Insolenti

Dormi O Cara

Porgetemi La Spada

Son Le Tue Leggi Amore/Godiam Dunque Godiamo!

D'Hipparco/Lasso Io Vivo/Di Chi Mi Lamento?

Rendetemi Euridice!

Piante Fiorite

Fortunato Mio Cor

A Dio

Io Moro

Oh Ritrovato Padre

D'Amor Non Si Quereli

Delitie E Contenti

Son Qui/Son Gobbo Son Demo/Linguaggio Curioso

Ecco Il Fatal Castello/Ti Lascio

Infelice

Godi Isifile

Piacere Maggiore

Piangete

Erme E Solinghe/Lucidissima Face

Dolcissimi Baci

Mio Tonante