Karina Gauvin, Philippe Jaroussky, Emöke Baráth, John Mark Ainsley, Teresa Iervolino, Luca Tittoto, Il Pomo D’oro, Riccardo Minasi – Handel: Partenope (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:23:24 minutes | 3,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Erato – Warner Classics
Handel’s sparkling opera Partenope reunites Erato’ star countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and the captivating Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin, who both made such an impact in the Erato recording of Steffani’s rediscovered opera Niobe, released in early 2015 and welcomed as a “landmark event” by Gramophone.
Jaroussky’s Erato catalogue is rich, varied and extensive – and this summer he appeared as Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina in a spectacular new production at the Aix-en-Provence Festival – but it is some time since he last recorded a complete Handel opera for the label: Faramondo, which was released in 2009. If Faramondo remains something of a rarity on the world’s stages, Partenope – which offers plenty of comedy as Queen Partenope juggles an array of suitors – is a popular work, and in recent years has even enjoyed productions in such large theatres as the San Francisco Opera and English National Opera.
Jaroussky takes the role of Arsace, Prince of Corinth, while Karina Gauvin is Queen Partenope herself. She has superb credentials as a Handelian and has recorded Ariodante (with Joyce DiDonato and the late Alan Curtis) and Giove in Argo (with Ann Hallenberg and Curtis) for Erato. Gramophone has spoken of her “ideal Handelian mix of grace and profound emotional truth,” while the Sunday Times has praised her “glinting soprano, bright-edged yet deliciously rounded and sensual … used with rare understanding for character” and the “sculptural beauty” of her phrasing.
The conductor is Riccardo Minasi, who, with his ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, also appears on Joyce DiDonato’s bel canto collection, Stella di Napoli and Edgar Moreau’s new Erato album Giovincello. Praising conductor and orchestra for their command of Handel’s operatic style, Forum Opéra has written: “A real drama unfolds from the overture onwards … The conductor brings true brio as he engages with Handel’s rhetoric … The players of Il Pomo d’Oro can switch in a moment from the role of interlocutor to commentator … Add to this a perfect mastery of the way the recitatives lead into the arias, and you have the formula for an approach that remains constantly fresh.”
The rich-voiced Italian mezzo-soprano takes the role of Rosmira – Arsace’s former lover, who is disguised as a man, Prince Eurimene – while the diamantine Hungarian soprano Emőke Baráth takes the role of a real man, Prince Armindo, who is in love with Partenope. “Supremely stylish” were the words used by the Telegraph to describe John Mark Ainsley when he sang Emilio (yet another prince seeking Partenope’s hand) at English National Opera, and the distinguished Italian bass Luca Tittoto brings authority to the role of Partenope’s advisor Ormonte.
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Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi & Emoke Barath – Vivaldi: Argippo (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:02:38 minutes | 2,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique
With this second contribution to the Vivaldi Edition, Fabio Biondi and his ensemble Europa Galante sign here the recording of the twentieth opera of the collection – a pasticcio in which Vivaldi ‘recycles’ hit tunes from the ‘World of Warcraft’ operas of his contemporaries.
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Emoke Baräth – Voglio cantar (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:20:00 minutes | 1,43 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Erato
Around 1630, a young woman of 13 named Barbara Valle was presented to Francesco Cavalli, who was already very famous not only as a composer but also as a teacher. Later, Valle would become known as Barbara Strozzi, after the name of her protector (and most likely her biological father) – and she displayed very promising talents. In fact, shortly after this meeting, Barbara made a dramatic entrance into the exclusively male world of the famous Accademi degli Unisoni, founded in Venice by one of the greatest intellectuals of the era and the city. Between 1644 and 1664, she would publish no fewer than eight collections of madrigals which, while they never made her rich, would bring her posthumous fame… Soprano Emöke Baráth has chosen a selection of pieces by Barbara Strozzi and Francesco Cavalli, laced with a few contemporary works not necessarily from Venice. This allows us to compare what was happening in Venice in the middle of the 17th century, and what was being written further north in Vienna and Warsaw or Rome and Florence by composers like Biagio Marini, Tarquino Merula and Antonio Cesti. Masterful accompaniment is provided by the Swiss ensemble il pomo d’oro.
Read moreEmöke Baráth, Artaserse, Philippe Jaroussky – Dualità (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]
![Emöke Baráth, Artaserse, Philippe Jaroussky - Dualità (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/03/19/q5iorj11254ma_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Emöke Baráth, Artaserse, Philippe Jaroussky – Dualità (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:21 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
In repertoire terms alone, there’s nothing very new about about this programme of nine Handel arias from Hungarian soprano, Emöke Baráth, when we’re talking about core repertoire gems such as Cleopatra’s “Se pietà di me non senti, giusto ciel” from Giulio Cesare and “Qual nave smarrita tra sirti” from Radamisto. However what Baráth and Jaroussky have then done with all this well-loved fare is thoroughly interesting, because when the operatic characters to whom these arias belong are a mixture of male and female, yet were all sung in Handel’s day by women, “Dualità” is an exploration of the female voice’s potential to characterise both heroines and heroes, while at the same time providing some insight into the careers of Baráth’s eighteenth century London counterparts.
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![Ottavio Dantone, Accademia Bizantina, Delphine Galou, Emőke Baráth, Silke Gäng - Vivaldi: Il Giustino (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/07/29/dxz09j65244yb_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Ottavio Dantone, Accademia Bizantina, Delphine Galou, Emőke Baráth, Silke Gäng – Vivaldi: Il Giustino (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:07:32 minutes | 3,50 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © naïve classique
With this new recording, the madly epic and romantic opera, Il Giustino, finally receives its place in the spotlight, something that the history of music has denied it up until now. The fifty-eighth recording and eighteenth opera in the Vivaldi Edition, which began in 2000, solidifies the status of Vivaldi as the greatest of opera composers – and of composers full stop.
It needed the talent, charisma and poetic energy of a great conductor to bring back to life this gem and it is Ottavio Dantone who assumes this mantle.
With an Accademia Bizantina even more virtuosic and passionate than ever, a cast of high-flying soloists (Emőke Baráth, Delphine Galou, Verónica Cangemi, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Silke Gäng) and instruments as rare as they are precious (such as the dreamlike psaltery that accompanies the breathtaking air by Anastasio), Maestro Dantone brilliantly reincarnates, through this legendary Giustino, the human passions of yesterday and today.
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