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GRAMOPHONE (Awards Issue /2013)
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Naïve
V5333
0822186053331 (ID340)
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Reviewer: David
Vickers
Fagioli sings Caffarelli’s bespoke Italian arias
Caffarelli sang in London for only one season (1737/38), and neither of his
Handelian roles is represented in Franco Fagioli’s survey, which
concentrates exclusively on the Neapolitan school of composers associated
with the notoriously pompous castrato. The lavish book places style above
substance: most of the six essays are inexcusably under-length (several
needlessly repeat information) and fail to explain the dramatic contexts of
the 11 arias. There are lots of pretty illustrations but a few are
irrelevant – most bizarrely the portrait of George I of Great Britain
(d1727).
Il Pomo d’Oro
play with theatrical verve and Fagioli’s rapid high passages are astonishing in
Hasse’s horn-punctuated ‘Fra l’orror della tempesta’ from Siroe (Bologna, 1733).
This is contrasted with softer melodic singing in ‘Ebbi da te la vita’, although
Fagioli’s literal heroic interpretation fails to convey Medarse’s sycophantic
and treacherous personality. Caffarelli made his stage debut in Sarro’s
Valdemaro (Rome, 1726), and his mercurial talent is hinted at in the lively ‘Un
cor che ben ama’ (with elaborate trumpet solos played by Herbert Walser). The
castrato performed most of the other arias at the recently opened Teatro San
Carlo in Naples: ‘In braccio a mille furie’ from Vinci’s Semiramide riconosciuta
(1744) is a rage aria packed with rasping trumpet fanfares and shows Fagioli’s
high-octane flashiness at its most spectacular (and his mannerisms at their
gramophone.co.uk most unbridled), but Pergolesi’s lyrical ‘Lieto così talvolta’
(Adriano in Siria, 1734) brings about a welcome change of mood and texture, with
its oboe obbligato played gorgeously by Elisabeth Baumer.
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