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Reviewer:
David Vickers
This recital devoted to
Attilio Ariosti (1666-1729) offers an indispensable chance to broaden our
appreciation of Italian opera in early Georgian London beyond the ubiquitous
Handel. Probably trained in music at the prestigious San Petronio in his
native Bologna, Ariosti took holy orders at the age of 20 but pursued a
high-profile musical career in Berlin, Vienna and London, where his opera
Tito Manlio concluded the 1717 season; the title-hero’s ‘Venga pur quel
sì terribile’ is a concise lament full of harmonic richness that proves
Ariosti was no mere also-ran.
Notwithstanding the album’s misleading title, several works represented here
were created for Vienna: ‘Bella mia, lascia ch’io vada’ from Scipione
Africano (1704) features a gentle obbligato theorbo played sensitively by
Giulio Quirici, and there are exquisite concertante strings including a pair of
high cellos in ‘Quando il mondo fabbricò’ from the oratorio La madre de’
Maccabei (also 1704). The high point of the extracts from Ariosti’s London
operas is the soliloquy for the unjustly imprisoned Roman title-hero in
Coriolano (1723), which has an extraordinary chromatic accompanied
recitative leading into a striking aria; Ensemble Odyssee exploit the dramatic
potential of Ariosti’s enharmonic invention and make it clear why Rameau praised
it in his treatise on harmony. Filippo Mineccia also sings another two
interesting arias from Coriolano – the ardent ‘Perdonate, o cari amori’
and ‘Io spero che in quei guardi’, which oscillates between charming passages
adorned by affectionate pastoral recorders and animated tempestuous outbursts.
Mineccia’s falsetto occasionally hoots when pressed under increased velocity,
and his low notes are not always smoothly incorporated into florid phrases, but
he more than makes up for minor blemishes by never producing anything less than
total theatrical conviction – and his soft singing in Servilia’s lovely pastoral
‘Aure care’ (from Tito Manlio) suggests that he is rapidly maturing into
an expressive and versatile artist.
