Pyrotechnics = VIVALDI: Opera Arias – Vivica Genaux, mezzo-soprano/ Europa Galante/ Fabio Biondi, violin and conductor – Virgin Classics 694573, 75:42 **** [Distr. by EMI]:
If you are in the mood for some Vivaldian exercises in unabashed fire-breathing virtuosity for virtuosity’s sake, this may be the album for you. Alaskan native Vivica Genaux, formerly of Arias for Farinelli fame and a few other discs of Handel, Hasse, and others for Virgin, now moves into the realm if high coloratura, the “virtuosa di bravura” that pits orchestra against singer, and whose temptations were such that for a while this style of singing became the raison d’tere of the opera itself.
Fortunately for us composers like Vivaldi were too good to indulge solely in those sorts of stunts merely to please the crowd, though he no doubt found great satisfaction in the applause. Though he was one of the most prolific of all opera composers, few of his wrestle much currency from us today as many of the plots seem superficial and outdated. But—then again, so did Handel’s, and he is making quite a comeback, so perhaps that is in the cards for the redheaded priest in the near future, if the period instrument movement decides to take such a risk. Albums like this should certainly help.
But though the vocal canon shots in this album are profound – and there are certainly some very interesting arias, replete with orchestration changes and all sort of wild vocal modulations – this music is not that of Handel, whose every effort it seems resulted in music of such perfectly spectacular melodic flawlessness and easily memorable tunes. Vivaldi’s is more situational and a little harder to adapt to when divorced from a dramatic context. No mind—this isstill music worth getting to know, and abundantly.
Genaux has been on the scene since around 1997, her career progressing steadily with much acclaim. The ideal comparison is of course with Cecelia Bartoli; I find her to be as perfect a Vivaldian machine as one could ask for, and you are never going to hear a singer who can emit rapid-passage dialogue more clearly or with such flawless enunciation. And she is a native Italian. But Genaux, while not in possession of this perfect instrument of Bartoli’s, does have a larger voice than the Italian, and much of her expression seems less contrived than some of Bartoli’s – not that the latter is insincere, but that the former has had to go through more in order to get to a comparable point, and it shows in her emotion. Recommended with pleasure.
TrackList:
1 Come in vano il mare irato (Catone in Utica, RV 705, 1737)
2 E prigionero e re (Semiramide, RV 733, 1732)
3 Alma oppressa (La fida ninfa, RV 714, 1732)
4 Agitata da due venti (Griselda, RV 718, 1735)
5 Destin nemico … Destin avaro! (La fida ninfa)
6 Il labbro ti lusinga (opera unknown)
7 Vibro il ferro (? Ipermestra, RV 722, 1727)
8 No, ch’amar non è fallo in cor guerriero … Quell’usignolo (Farnace, RV 711-G, 1738)
9 Splender fra ‘l cieco orror (Tito Manlio, RV 778, 1720)
10 Vorrei dirti il mio dolore (Rosmira fedele, RV 731, 1738)
11 Chi può nelle sventure … Nella foresta (Catone in Utica)
12 Ricordati che sei (Farnace)
13 Sin nel placido soggiorno (opera unknown)
— Steven Ritter
