Francesco Gasparini - Santa Maria Egiziaca - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The terrible Atalia, having eliminated the entire royal family in order to secure her power, reigns mercilessly over Jerusalem. But seven years later, the High Priest, determined to put an end to her tyranny, joins forces with General Ormano and the wise old Nourrice to bring little Joas, the only survivor of the massacre, to the throne. Emmanuel Resche-Caserta and the Ensemble Hemiolia make Francesco Gasparini's oratorio their own, bringing to life characters in the grip of fury, vengeance and exaltation. The music, with it's striking dramatic intensity, underlines the final moral justice and innocence always triumph.

The latest striking from soprano Roberta Invernizzi acts as a lightning conductor for this new vocal extravaganza from Glossa devoted to the Italian Baroque composer Francesco Gasparini. Invernizzi finds herself very much home both in the music, but also, so noticeably, with the words librettos from the likes of Zeno, Piovene or Salvi find this singer exercising her customary intelligence. Carlo Ipata, directing his ensemble Auser Musici, combines his natural and obvious flair for Italian and music of the time - he has also recorded the opera Il Bajazet for Glossa - with the painstaking demands of the research required to identify brilliant arias from slumbering the various shades of neglect. Gasparini wrote some sixty operas, as well as oratorios and many cantatas. For Invernizzi Ipata has crafted a beguiling selection from this abundance of music which proved so successful in both princely soirées in Rome and public theatres in Venice. Arias come from operas such as Il Roderigo and Amleto and oratorios such as L'oracolo del Fato and Atalia. As well as the cantata, Andate o miei sospiri, composed by Gasparini as part of a challenge undertaken jointly with Alessandro Scarlatti, Ipata and Auser Musici have added an attractive flute concerto written during his time as a teacher at Venice's Ospedale della Pietà

Gasparini / Micheli - Cantate Da Camera [COMPACT DISCS] date 01/01/2004