Disc 1 
1.Sinfonia 1 (Catone in Utica)
2.Sinfonia II (Catone in Utica)
3.Sinfonia Iii (Catone In Utica)
4."Perché sì mesto o padre? " (Act 1)
5."Con sì bel nome in fronte" (Act 1)
6."Poveri affetti miei " (Act 1)
7."Non ti minaccio sdegno " (Act 1)
8."Che giurai! Che promisi!" (Act 1)
9."Che legge spietata!" (Act 1)
10."Dunque Cesare venga" (Act 1)
11."Io conquest'occhi " (Act 1)
12."Si sgomenti alle sue pene" (Act 1)
13."Tu taci Emilia?" (Act 1)
14."Nell'ardire che il seno t'accende" (Act 1)
15."Quanto da te diverso" (Act 1)
16."Piangendo ancora rincecer suole" (Act 1)
17."Se gli altrui folli amori" (Act 1)
18."O nel sen di qualche stella" (Act 1)
19."Giunse dunque a tentarti" (Act 1)
20."Pur ti reveggo, o Marzia" (Act 1)
21."Chi un dolceamor condanna" (Act 1)
22."Mie perdute speranze" (Act 1)
23."E' in ogni core diverso amore" (Act 1)

Disc 2 
1."Se manca Arbace" (Act 1)
2."Un certo non so che" (Act 1)
3."Ah troppo dissi" (Act 1)
4."E' folia se mascondete" (Act 1)
5."Romani, il vostro duce" (Act 2)
6."Va', ritorna al tuo tiranno" (Act 2)
7."A tanto eccesso arriva l'orgoglio di Catone?" (Act 2)
8."So, che pieta non hai" (Act 2)
9."E qual sorte è la mia!" (Act 2)
10."Soffre talor del vento" (Act 2)
11."Lode agli dei La fuggitiva speme" (Act 2)
12."In che t'offende" (Act 2)
13."Tu vedi o bella" (Act 2)
14."Per te spero" (Act 2)
15."Oh dei tutta se stessa" (Act 2)
16."Nascesti alle pene" (Act 2)
17."Si vuole ad onta mi ache Cesare s'ascolti?" (Act 2)
18."Se in campo armato" (Act 2)

Disc 3
1."Ah signor che facesti?" (Act 2)
2."Dovea svenarti allora" (Act 2)
3."Sarete paghi alfin" (Act 2)
4."So che godendo vai" (Act 2)
5."Udisti Arbace? Il credo appena" (Act 2)
6."Se sciogliere non vuoi" (Act 2)
7."L'ingiustizia, il disprezzo" (Act 2)
8."Che sia la gelosia" (Act 2)
9."Tutto amico ho tentato" (Act 3)
10."La fronda che circonda" (Act 3)
11."Quanti aspetti la sorte cangia in un giorno!" (Act 3)
12."Confusa, smarrita" (Act 3)
13."Qual'insoliti moti" (Act 3)
14."Combattuta da tante vicende" (Act 3)
15."Del rivale all'aita" (Act 3)
16."Quell'amor che poco accende" (Act 3)
17."Pur veggo alfine un raggio d'incerta luce" (Act 3)
18."? questo amici il luogo" (Act 3)
19."Deh, in vita ti serba" (Act 3)
20."Dove mai l'idol mio" (Act 3) 

Max Emanuel Cencic (Arbace) - countertenor
Franco Fagioli (Cesare) - countertenor
Valer Sabadus (Marzia) - countertenor
Martin Mitterutzner (Fulvio) - tenor
Vince Yi (Emilia) - countertenor
Juan Sancho (Catone) - tenor

Il Pomo D'oro
Riccardo Minasi - conductor

World premiere recording of an opera by a Neapolitan master fast gaining a first-rate modern reputation. Max Emanuel Cencic gathers around him an intoxicating mix of stratospheric countertenors, a top tenor, and an orchestra who sizzle with excitement for a performance of an opera that will appeal to all fans of Baroque music’s unsung heroes.

As March’s ‘Five Countertenors’ album showcased, the age of the countertenor is here. Max Emanuel Cencic has gathered around him, once again, a superb cast to bring Vinci’s “Catone In Utica” to vivid life.

“Vinci is the Lully of Italy: true, simple, natural, expressive”- for generations Leonardo Vinci was just another obscure Baroque composer: this first-rate recording will lift the veil from this forgotten genius of Italian opera, and from the mysterious all-male world of the 18th-century Roman stage. With a libretto by Metastasio, Vinci’s opera was unveiled in Rome in 1728 with an all-male cast (women having been banned from the stage by the Pope): countertenors took the three heroic male roles as well as the female parts. ---prestomusic.com

Vinci’s Catone in Utica was premièred in Rome in 1728 with an all-male cast. This followed the long-standing 1588 decree of Pope Sixtus V banning women from staged productions in the city. Thus in this opera the heroic male roles are taken exclusively by castrati, who also took over the female roles. The text is by Metastasio, who based it on Plutarch’s account of Cato’s suicide. This performance, luxuriating in an abundance of counter-tenors, is heard uncut.

Decca has some of the best counter-tenors on its books at the moment and three of the singers here – Sabadus, Cencic and Yi – were present on their ‘The 5 Countertenors’ blockbuster recently (review) which was a fine showcase for their talents. Here those talents are laser-focused on this single work to great advantage. It helps that orchestral duties are in the hands of Il Pomo d’Oro under their inspirational violinist and director Riccardo Minasi. He seldom misses a theatrical trick and unlike some – let’s say René Jacobs – equally seldom strays into the realm of redundant musical hyperbole. You couldn’t wish for a more well-paced or dramatically convincing opening three-part Sinfonia, drums to the fore and brass braying. The only time I’d fault him is in some moments when the baroque guitar accompaniment is too insistent. It can be thrilling but cumulatively can sound overdone. In Act II Scene XIII Minasi has Catone’s aria, Dovea svenarti aggressively accompanied in a way that is both thrilling and dubiously musical.

In the role of Cato is the tenor Juan Sancho, whose voice is powerfully directed though never stentorian; its potent upward extension is unforced, as he shows in his Act I Scene I aria Con sì bel nome. There’s some metal there too in Act II’s Va’, ritorna al tuo tiranno. The super-virtuosic Franco Fagioli assumes the role of Caesar and his crystalline purity is, predictably, one of the set’s greatest assets. That said, he shines as much in slow arias, where his legato is excellent, as in faster more imperious ones. For an example of the last, try Act II’s pomposo aria Soffre talor, where there’s a rich variety of orchestral colour to accompany him as he articulates in the B section, quite brilliantly, down to his chest voice.

Cencic takes the role of Arbace and one often finds him singing somewhat lower in his register than in other recordings. This brings out different colours in his voice and is testimony to his range and his tone colours – try Act II’s Che sia la gelosia. By contrast the more plaintive role of Marzia suits Valer Sabradus very nicely. Fellow counter-tenor Vince Yi reveals an appealingly girlish tone as Emilia, and his aria Piagendo ancora heralds an impersonation of some style. Tenor Martin Mitterrutzner is Fulvio and he has clearly mastered Leo’s demands for punchy characterisation in divisions.

Apart from the recitatives, in which several characters come together, the arias are overwhelmingly stand-alone, so it comes as a pleasure to hear four singers in the final scene. Fortunately, those many and sometimes involved recitatives are fluid and fast, though not breathless, an important quality given that they are sometimes lengthy.

The splendid booklet has a first class introduction and a full four-language libretto. At 290 pages it’s certainly chunky. This world premiere recording breathes triumphant life into Leo’s already theatrically convincing opera. ---Jonathan Woolf, musicweb-international.com

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1. Atto I
2. Atto II
3. Atto III

Partenope  - Sonia Prina
Arsace - Roberta Invernizzi
Emilio - Lucia Cirillo
Armindo - Masaka Sakurada
Ormonte - Rosario Totaro
Rosmira - Maria Grazia Schiavo

Capella della Pieta de' Turchini
Antonio Floro – conductor

Festival Internazionale dell’Opera Barocca
Beaune, Cour des Hospices  (10 July 2004)

Silvio Stampiglia, one of the most prolific librettists of the early 18th century originally wrote his libretto in 1699 for Naples. It is in fact dedicated to the myth of the founding of the city of Naples. First set to music by Luigi Mancia it was later that several others also used the libretto, among them Antonio Caldera and, most famously, Handel (King’s Theatre, 1730). Handel may have seen Caldara’s opera in Venice ca. 1710. It was also for Venice that Leonardo Vinci composed his Partenope, though it was then entitled Rosmira fedele. Why the title was changed is open to debate, but one reason could be that it was a homage to Faustina Bordoni. She had taken the title role in Naples a couple of years earlier in Domenico Natale Sarro’s setting of the text but in Venice she was instead Rosmira. The story is rather typical of early 18th century operas: ‘love and jealousy, duels, battles, deceits, disguises, and a touch of moral lesson’: Dinko Fabris, from the liner-notes.

Structurally the opera is divided into three acts, each of which is preceded by a comic intermezzo, where Eurilla and Beltrammo comment on the serious plot to be unfolded in the following act. It was out of a similarly structured opera, Il prigionier superbo, that Pergolesi extracted the two intermezzi that became La serva padrona. This had its own life - and still has - as one of the foremost early buffo operas.

Less than a year ago I reviewed another opera by Vinci, Artaserse, (review), which was a revelation. I made it my Recording of the Month and even quite recently Recording of the Year. This is a CD-set with no visual distractions. With the present Partenope one has to take the visual aspects into consideration as well.

Sets and costumes are blissfully ‘authentic’. I’ve seen baroque operas in modern disguise that have felt like valuable bridges between history and present day. These have included camouflage uniformed soldiers with machine-guns and a swimming-pool with sharks in a production of Giulio Cesare. it is a relief to find no gimmicks distracting from the central story and music however complicated the former may be. The effect of the sets is like stepping into a baroque painting and the costumes are voluptuously beautiful. Lighting effects add to the atmosphere and there is a grand, spectacular finale with acrobats. 18th century audiences must have liked this. Spectacular and colourful it is, anyway.

Musically La Partenope may not reach the heights of Artaserse but it is delightful, with some true high-spots. Partenope’s aria in the first act, Non posso amarti, o Dio, is one of those with a particularly enchanting orchestral interlude. In the second intermezzo there is even a fandango with castanets. Rosmira’s aria in act III, Vuol tornare a la sua sponda, full of coloratura excesses, is truly charming. It’s also well sung: the best singing in this set. Maria Grazia Schiavo is elsewhere too vibrant for my taste, but her technique is impressive.

That also goes for Sonia Prina in the title role. This Italian contralto has made baroque opera her speciality. She is the dominant personality in the cast both dramatically and vocally. --- Göran Forsling, musicweb-international.com

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1.Atto primo

Sinfonia
Rec.: Addio, Sentimi Arbace
Aria: Conservati fedele
Rec.: Figlio, Arbace. Signor
Aria: Fra cento affanni
Rec.: Coraggio o miei pensieri
Aria: Su le sponde del torbido Lete
Rec.: Qual vittima si svena! - Dove, principe, dove?
Aria: Per pieta, bell'idol mio
Rec.: Gran cose io temo
Aria: Sogna il guerrier le schiere
Rec.: Voi della Persia
Aria: Bramar di perdere
Rec.: Ah, Mandane... Artaserse - Signore. Amico
Rec.: Artaserse respira
Rec.: Arbace e il reo
Aria: Deh respirar lasciatemi
Rec.: E innocente dovrai traggi soffrir
Aria: Non ti son padre
Rec.: Ma per qual fallo mai
Aria: Torna innocente e poi
Rec.: Mio ben, mia vita...
Aria: Dimmi che un empio sei
Recitativo accompagnato: No che non ha
Aria: Vo un mar crudele

2.Atto secondo

Rec.: Dal carcere o custodi
Aria: Rendimi il caro amico
Rec.: Son quasi in porto
Aria: Mi scacci sdegnato!
Rec.: I tuoi deboli affetti - Figlia, e questi il tuo sposo
Aria: Amalo e se al tuo sguardo
Rec.: Ascolta o Megabise
Aria: Non temer ch'io mai ti dica
Rec.: Qual serie di sventure
Aria: Se d'un amor tiranno
Rec.: A qual di tanti mali
Aria: Se del fiume altera l'onda
Rec.: Mio re, chiedono a gara - Artaserse pieta - E vana la tua, la mia pieta
Rec.: Tanto in odio alla Persia
Aria: Per quel paterno amplesso
Rec.: A pezzo del mio sangue
Aria: Va' tra le selve ircane
Rec.: Quanto, amata Semira
Aria: Per quell'affetto
Rec.: Dell'ingrata Semira
Aria: Non conosco in tal momento
Rec.: Son pur solo una volta
Aria: Cosi stupisce e cade

3.Atto terzo

Arioso: Perche tarda e mai la morte
Rec.: Arbace. Oh dei, che miro!
Aria: L'onda dal mar divisa
Rec.: Quella fronte sicura e quel sembiante
Aria: Nuvoletta opposta al sole
Recitativo: Figlio, Arbace, ove sei?
Aria: Ardito ti renda
Rec.: Trovaste avversi dei
Aria: Figlio se piu non vivi
Rec.: Ne pur qui la ritrovo
Duetto: Tu vuoi ch'io viva o cara
Rec.: A voi popoli io m'offro
Rec. accompagnato: 'Lucido dio per cui l'april fiorisce'
Rec.: Al riparo signor - Ferma o germano
Rec.: Ecco Arbace, o monarca, a' piedi tuoi
Rec. accompagnato: 'Lucido dio per cui l'april fiorisce'
Rec.: Ferma; e veleno
Coro: Giusto re, la Persia adora

Artaserse - Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor)
Mandane - Max Emanuel Cencic (countertenor)
Artabano - Daniel Behle  (tenor)
Arbace - Franco Fagioli (countertenor)
Semira - Valer Bama-Sabadus (countertenor)
Megabise - Yuriy Mynenko (countertenor)
Concerto Köln
Diego Fasolis – conductor

25.11.2012 Théâtre Municipal de Lausanne

The opera libretto Artaserse (Artaxerxes) by Pietro Metastasio was the hit of the 18th century opera seria. It was set more than 40 times, including once in English (by Thomas Arne), and its popularity lasted into the 19th century. The opera by Leonardo Vinci recorded here, however, was the very first one, dating from 1730. It's easy to see even at this late date why Metastasio's libretto appealed to opera composers and operagoers so much. The story, concerning the Persian king Xerxes' son Artaxerxes I (based very loosely on actual events), features royal pomp, young love, betrayal, tragic self-sacrifice, and, to top it all off, a happy ending. Musically the opera is odd by present-day standards; it called for an all-male cast, women being banned from Roman theaters at the time. The cast consisted of five castrati, sung here by countertenors, and one tenor, the villain Artabano. It's a big work, with sober processionals and spectacular arias for almost all the characters. French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky has never been in better voice, but the performance is equally notable for introducing some lesser-known countertenors, such as the creamy-voiced Valer Barna-Sabadus as Semira, Artaserse's frustrated lover. It's not until now, as a matter of fact, that a critical mass of countertenors has been available to perform music of this difficulty, and the results are worth hearing on several levels. Slowly but surely, the history of opera in the 18th century is being rewritten. ---James Manheim, Rovi

Leonardo Vinci, (born 1690, Strongoli, Kingdom of Naples [Italy]—died May 27, 1730, Naples), Italian composer who was one of the originators of the Neapolitan style of opera; along with Nicola Porpora, his followers included Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Johann Adolph Hasse.

Vinci’s first known work was a comic opera in the Neapolitan dialect, Lo cecato fauzo (1719; “The False Blind Man”). He served as chapelmaster to the prince of Sansevero and in 1725 received a conductorship of the royal chapel at Naples, a post he held until his death. His earliest extant serious opera, Silla dittatore (1723; “Silla the Dictator”), inaugurated a series of about 40 operas, most written for Naples but some for Rome. Arias from his operas were published in London in 1758 under the title Collection of Songs. In addition to his operas, Vinci also composed oratorios, masses, and motets. --- britannica.com

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1-3 Mesta, oh Dio, fra queste selve by Leonardo Vinci
4-7 Fille, tu parti, oh Dio, chamber cantata for soprano or alto & continuo by Alessandro Scarlatti
8-10 Mi costa tante lacrime, cantata for voice & ensemble by Leonardo Vinci
11-14 Recorder Sonata in A minor by Leonardo Vinci
15-18 Amor, di Citerea, cantata for voice & ensemble by Leonardo Vinci
19-22 Parto. Ma con qual core, cantata for voice & ensemble by Leonardo Vinci

Emanuela Galli • soprano (1-3, 8-10, 19-22)
Francesca Cassinari • soprano (4-7, 15-18)
Stile Galante (Ensemble):
Claudia Combs • violin I
Eva Saladin • violin II
Anna Stegmann • recorder
Gabriele Palomba • theorbo
Giovanni Valgimigli • violone
Andrea Friggi • harpsichord
Stefano Aresi • direction

Here is a nice disc that explores the world of the chamber cantata in early 18th-century Naples by one of the city’s leading lights, Leonardo Vinci (1690–1730). Vinci, trained at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo, spent his entire life in Naples, first as a private maestro di cappella to the Prince of Sansevero and subsequently, in 1725, as Alessandro Scarlatti’s successor at the Cappella Royale. A favorite teacher, he trained sopranos such as Faustina Bordoni, who later became part of a power couple with her husband, Johann Adolf Hasse, in Dresden, and influenced an entire generation of composers of opera seria as well as comic works in the Neapolitan dialect, the forerunners of opera buffa.

Vinci (and no, it is not Leonardo da Vinci, although there are several discs of the music of his time two centuries earlier) is no stranger to audiophiles, since his music has appeared in a trickle since the early 1990s. The complete flute sonatas were released in 1999 on Mondo Musica, while two operas, L’ammalato immaginario and Li zite ’ngalera , appeared the same year on Opus 111; the former has been rereleased as an mp3 only this year. And even the cantatas are not unknown, since they have formed part of a number of recordings of Neapolitan music over the past two decades, and there is even a nice disc on Naïve done by the Cappella dei Turchini in 2007. None include these works, but enough is out there to realize that he is one of the originators of the lyrical line that marks early Italian classicism as it appears in people such as Giovanni Pergolesi or Hasse (Handel’s successor as “Il caro sassone”). It is therefore not surprising to find that these intimate pieces, often scored only for voice and continuo, are in that no-man’s land between the conservative and predictable Baroque and more sensitive Neapolitan styles, in that there are features such as ostinato grounds, repetition, and sequencing of small motivic units, but also flowing lines, interesting and often unexpected harmonies, and a sensitivity to text that goes beyond mere word-painting. There is virtuosity, oh yes, but there is also attention to the details of the texts by Pietro Metastasio that involves dramatic gestures.

For example, the final cantata’s first movement, “Parto, ma con qual core,” allegedly written for Bordoni as a gift, opens with a powerfully emotional mezza di voce on the word “parto,” drawing out the sentiment. Thereafter such text emphasis interrupts the recitative periodically, giving it a dramatic punch. The same can be said for the opening of the first cantata, where the word “mesta” (sorrowful or woeful) is sustained for such a length that you feel the soprano must burst into tears. Not all is entirely so maudlin, however, for Vinci includes in the common three- or four-movement sequence of his cantatas some nice displays. For example, in the fourth cantata, Amor, di Citerea , there are some nice florid lines to “tu spiega il mio diletto,” while in the first, the final aria “In mezzo all’onde irate” is a rather trippy furore with rapid figuration and ornamentation. These are competently composed works that demonstrate variety and interest, from the quaint ostinato continuo of the final work’s “chi m’ascolta” to abrupt adagio insertions into the third aria of Mi consta tante lacrime that interrupt the dance-like mood with emotional comments. The only interlopers are the recorder sonata, a rather plain piece that sounds very much like Telemann even down to the cute final minuet, and the cantata Fille, tu parti? , which diverges so drastically in terms of style and content, being a rather old-fashioned set of continuo arias, that it can hardly be by Vinci at all. In fact, it is by his predecessor, Alessandro Scarlatti, who wrote more than 600 of these things and no doubt served as Vinci’s model, which explains the misattribution. One might have hoped for a couple of his other 15-odd cantatas instead.

As far as the performances go, soprano Francesca Cassinari has a light, flexible voice that handles the various florid passages with ease. She is in tune, and I find her interpretation of these occasional works quite effective. Her colleague Emanuela Galli has a darker color to her voice, almost a mezzo, and while this gives depth to the texts in her cantatas, she occasionally could be cleaner with her ornamentations. In “In mezza all’onde irate,” for instance, a vibrato creeps into passages, which seems to throw her slightly off pitch momentarily. On the other hand, her sensitive performance in the Bordoni cantata is magical, especially in the first recitative and the final aria, where she hits her stride in the roulades of “Qual ruscelletto.” Stefano Aresi’s group, Stile Galante, does a credible job, though strings are required really only in the first cantata. I find Gabriele Palomba’s theorbo playing quite effective, rolling the chords in a way that seems to imitate the opening of a curtain onto the scene. In short, this is a good disc, and if you are at all interested in the late Baroque Neapolitan musical scene, it would be a good one to have in your collection. ---FANFARE: Bertil van Boer, arkivmusic.com

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