Recently in Recordings

Henry Purcell, Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II Vol. III: The Sixteen/Harry Christophers

The Sixteen continues its exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II. As with Robert King’s pioneering Purcell series begun over thirty years ago for Hyperion, Harry Christophers is recording two Welcome Songs per disc.

Anima Rara: Ermonela Jaho

In February this year, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho made a highly lauded debut recital at Wigmore Hall - a concert which both celebrated Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary and honoured the career of the Italian soprano Rosina Storchio (1872-1945), the star of verismo who created the title roles in Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

Requiem pour les temps futurs: An AI requiem for a post-modern society

Collapsology. Or, perhaps we should use the French word ‘Collapsologie’ because this is a transdisciplinary idea pretty much advocated by a series of French theorists - and apparently, mostly French theorists. It in essence focuses on the imminent collapse of modern society and all its layers - a series of escalating crises on a global scale: environmental, economic, geopolitical, governmental; the list is extensive.

Ádám Fischer’s 1991 MahlerFest Kassel ‘Resurrection’ issued for the first time

Amongst an avalanche of new Mahler recordings appearing at the moment (Das Lied von der Erde seems to be the most favoured, with three) this 1991 Mahler Second from the 2nd Kassel MahlerFest is one of the more interesting releases.

Max Lorenz: Tristan und Isolde, Hamburg 1949

If there is one myth, it seems believed by some people today, that probably needs shattering it is that post-war recordings or performances of Wagner operas were always of exceptional quality. This 1949 Hamburg Tristan und Isolde is one of those recordings - though quite who is to blame for its many problems takes quite some unearthing.

Women's Voices: a sung celebration of six eloquent and confident voices

The voices of six women composers are celebrated by baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and soprano Yunah Lee on this characteristically ambitious and valuable release by Lontano Records Ltd (Lorelt).

Rosa mystica: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir

As Paul Spicer, conductor of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, observes, the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary is as ‘old as Christianity itself’, and programmes devoted to settings of texts which venerate the Virgin Mary are commonplace.

The Prison: Ethel Smyth

Ethel Smyth’s last large-scale work, written in 1930 by the then 72-year-old composer who was increasingly afflicted and depressed by her worsening deafness, was The Prison – a ‘symphony’ for soprano and bass-baritone soloists, chorus and orchestra.

Songs by Sir Hamilton Harty: Kathryn Rudge and Christopher Glynn

‘Hamilton Harty is Irish to the core, but he is not a musical nationalist.’

After Silence: VOCES8

‘After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.’ Aldous Huxley’s words have inspired VOCES8’s new disc, After Silence, a ‘double album in four chapters’ which marks the ensemble’s 15th anniversary.

Beethoven's Songs and Folksongs: Bostridge and Pappano

A song-cycle is a narrative, a journey, not necessarily literal or linear, but one which carries performer and listener through time and across an emotional terrain. Through complement and contrast, poetry and music crystallise diverse sentiments and somehow cohere variability into an aesthetic unity.

Flax and Fire: a terrific debut recital-disc from tenor Stuart Jackson

One of the nicest things about being lucky enough to enjoy opera, music and theatre, week in week out, in London’s fringe theatres, music conservatoires, and international concert halls and opera houses, is the opportunity to encounter striking performances by young talented musicians and then watch with pleasure as they fulfil those sparks of promise.

Carlisle Floyd's Prince of Players: a world premiere recording

“It’s forbidden, and where’s the art in that?”

John F. Larchet's Complete Songs and Airs: in conversation with Niall Kinsella

Dublin-born John F. Larchet (1884-1967) might well be described as the father of post-Independence Irish music, given the immense influenced that he had upon Irish musical life during the first half of the 20th century - as a composer, musician, administrator and teacher.

Haddon Hall: 'Sullivan sans Gilbert' does not disappoint thanks to the BBC Concert Orchestra and John Andrews

The English Civil War is raging. The daughter of a Puritan aristocrat has fallen in love with the son of a Royalist supporter of the House of Stuart. Will love triumph over political expediency and religious dogma?

Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and Choral Fantasy from Harmonia Mundi

Beethoven Symphony no 9 (the Choral Symphony) in D minor, Op. 125, and the Choral Fantasy in C minor, Op. 80 with soloist Kristian Bezuidenhout, Pablo Heras-Casado conducting the Freiburger Barockorchester, new from Harmonia Mundi.

Taking Risks with Barbara Hannigan

A Louise Brooks look-a-like, in bobbed black wig and floor-sweeping leather trench-coat, cheeks purple-rouged and eyes shadowed in black, Barbara Hannigan issues taut gestures which elicit fire-cracker punch from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Alfredo Piatti: The Operatic Fantasies (Vol.2) - in conversation with Adrian Bradbury

‘Signor Piatti in a fantasia on themes from Beatrice di Tenda had also his triumph. Difficulties, declared to be insuperable, were vanquished by him with consummate skill and precision. He certainly is amazing, his tone magnificent, and his style excellent. His resources appear to be inexhaustible; and altogether for variety, it is the greatest specimen of violoncello playing that has been heard in this country.’

Those Blue Remembered Hills: Roderick Williams sings Gurney and Howells

Baritone Roderick Williams seems to have been a pretty constant ‘companion’, on my laptop screen and through my stereo speakers, during the past few ‘lock-down’ months.

Bruno Ganz and Kirill Gerstein almost rescue Strauss’s Enoch Arden

Melodramas can be a difficult genre for composers. Before Richard Strauss’s Enoch Arden the concept of the melodrama was its compact size – Weber’s Wolf’s Glen scene in Der Freischütz, Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea or even Leonore’s grave scene in Beethoven’s Fidelio.

OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »

Recordings

Francesco Cavalli: Ercole amante
09 Nov 2011

David Alden directs Cavalli’s Ercole Amante for Amsterdam, 2009

The operas of a composer born before the settlement of Jamestown face dim prospects of getting staged at the larger American houses.

Francesco Cavalli (with ballet music by Jean-Baptiste Lully): Ercole Amante

Ercole: Luca Pisaroni; Iole: Veronica Cangemi; Giunone: Anna Bonitatibus; Illo: Jeremy Ovenden; Deianira: Anna Maria Panzarella; Licco: Marlin Miller; Nettuno / Tevere / Spirit of Eutyro: Umberto Chiummo; Bellezza / Venere: Wilke te Brummelstroete; Cinzia / Pasitea / Spirit of Clerica: Johannette Zomer; Mercurio / Spirit of Laomedonte: Mark Tucker; A Page / Spirit of Bussiride: Tim Mead. Netherlands Opera Chorus. Concerto Köln. Conductor: Ivor Bolton. Stage Director: David Alden. Recorded live from the Het Muziektheater, 2009.

Opus Arte OABD7050D [Blu-Ray]

$48.99  Click to buy

It’s taken quite a long time, after all, for Handel to be somewhat regularly performed. So don’t be expecting any time soon for the Ercole Amante of Francesca Cavalli (born 1602) to make it to the Metropolitan at Lincoln Center, the Lyric of Chicago or the War Memorial of San Francisco.

Fortunately, those with either an interest in the beginnings of the operatic artform or simply more catholic tastes can at least avail themselves of the DVD of David Alden’s production, as recorded in January 2009 at the Het Musiektheater Amsterdam. As seen in spectacular Blu-ray, this riotous yet paradoxically respectful production of Cavalli’s opera (to a libretto by Francesco Buti) gives the viewer a sense of the entertainment value of operas that often seem, when performed dully out of a sense of historical accuracy, tediously formal in the extreme. The harmonies rarely stray from the expected, and there sometimes seem to be 10 minutes of recitative for every minute of music. Surely a composer such as Cavalli expected to have the full use of the most modern stage wizardry of his time, and Alden hasn’t denied himself the best of ours either. With the imaginative costumes of Constance Hoffman and the ingenious sets of Paul Steinberg, Alden has put together a show that respects the opera’s most sincere moments while teasing the opera’s titular hero and his less than heroic shenanigans right up to the edges of parody.

Written as part of the marriage celebrations for Louis XIV, Ercole Amante begins with a choral tribute and then effortlessly slips into the story proper. Ercole (Hercules) is a bored husband, infatuated with one Iole, who just happens to be the intended of Ercole’s own son, Hyllo. Deianira, Ercole’s wife, pleads with Gionone (Juno) for help to save her marriage, as Ercole has bargained with Venere (Venus) for assistance in his plot to seduce Iole. When frustrated, Ercole grows so furious he condemns to death his own son. Eventually Hyllo arranges for Ercole to don the infamous poisoned robe, which condemns Ercole to the Underworld — a location to which he adapts rather quickly, finding himself still abele to pursue his amorous dictates there. And so - a happy end for all!

As Alden himself ruminates in one of the bonus features, it’s not clear if composer and librettist counted on the royal party’s good humor or if they never gave a second thought to the less than favorable light the opera casts on the mythological stand-in for the King. As director, Alden plays with this dichotomy by having Luca Pisaroni in the initial scene dressed as Louis XIV, only to change into his wild Ercole persona by use of ridiculous plastic muscle molding, tall platform boots and a pro wrestler’s extravagant wig. Pisaroni is perfect for the role, being handsome enough to play the self-infatuated hero and yet with that wink of self-awareness. Camping it up even more exuberantly are Marlin Miller as the servant of Ercole’s wife and counter-tenor Tim Mead as a page.

Veronica Cangemi as Iole and Anna Maria Panzarella as Deianeira get the show’s most somber moments, and while they’re good, most viewers will be anxious for the wildness to start up again. Anna Bonitatibus’s Juno and Wilke te Brummelstroete as Venere have and are more fun.

Ivor Bolton and the expert Concerto Köln sound a bit clunky in the interposed ballet music of Lully (or is that Lully’s fault?), but the long stretches or recitative stay lively and even colorful in their expert hands.

Besides the sheer beauty of the Blu-Ray picture, Opus Arte deserves kudos for the excellent bonus features, which include a synopsis, cast gallery, filmed interviews with Pisaroni and Johanette Zomer (who takes three minor roles), and a thirty-minute “making of” featurette with fascinating glimpses into rehearsals and costume and set construction. To nitpick, that featurette needlessly repeats some clips from the interviews.

The larger American opera houses might not be ready either for Cavalli’s Monteverdian composition or David Alden’s risk-taking approach, but lovers of creative opera stagings should be thankful Amsterdam put this show on and recorded it. Snap it up.

Chris Mullins

[Editor’s Note: Ercole Amante was performed at the Boston Early Music Festival in June 1999.]


Send to a friend

Send a link to this article to a friend with an optional message.

Friend's Email Address: (required)

Your Email Address: (required)

Message (optional):