{"id":8568,"date":"2012-12-18T10:48:24","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T15:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=8568"},"modified":"2012-12-18T10:48:24","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T15:48:24","slug":"daily-album-review-32-a-brilliant-reconstruction-of-orlando-fudioso-vivaldis-third-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2012\/12\/18\/daily-album-review-32-a-brilliant-reconstruction-of-orlando-fudioso-vivaldis-third-opera\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily album review 32: A brilliant reconstruction of Orlando Furioso, Vivaldi’s third opera"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Federico<\/a>
Federico Maria Sardelli is the mastermind behind a reconstructed Orlando Furioso<\/em> by Vivaldi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The world premiere recording of a semi-reconstructed opera by Antonio Vivaldi is interesting enough, but the singers on this particular album make the music positively magnetic.<\/p>\n

Vivaldi (1678-1741) has come down to us as a master Baroque symphonist and violin virtuoso. But he was also the Verdi of his day, enjoying fame for his operas beyond the borders of Italian principalities.<\/p>\n

\"orlando\"<\/a>Bits and pieces of the Red Priest’s four-dozen-and-counting operas gathered dust in a Turin University library until two decades ago, when scholars began taking a fresh interest in what is really some of the composer’s finest work.<\/p>\n

The latest bit of scholarly sleuthing by Italian period-performance conductor and Baroque flutist Federico Maria Sardelli has produced two colourful acts of a 1714 opera, Orlando Furioso<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It is recorded on two CDs as Vol. 52 of a longstanding archival project (the Vivaldi Edition, funded largely by the arts council of the Piemonte region) and distributed through financially struggling French classical label Na\u00efve.<\/p>\n

The story behind this reconstruction is fascinating, underlining how different artistic life was in the pre-copyright era.<\/p>\n

Vivaldi was producing another composer’s Orlando Furioso<\/em> in 1713 that was such a hit, it ran for something like 70 performances. To keep it fresh for its Venetian public, Vivaldi started rewriting arias, cutting bits and adding others.<\/p>\n

By the next season, the impresario had enough new material to trash all of the old stuff and — Sardelli assumes — call this Orlando<\/em> his own, making it Vivaldi’s third original opera in the chronology as we know it today.<\/p>\n

Sardelli couldn’t find a third act, nor an overture (known as a sinfonia). He has left the opera without a conclusion, but did add a rarely performed concerto written around the same time as an overture.<\/p>\n

The recording made in Florence this past summer is spectacular, thanks to beautiful work by Sardelli and period-instrument ensemble Modo Antiquo and a cast of seven soloists, including Canadian expat countertenor David DQ Lee as Ruggiero.<\/p>\n

Lee has developed beautifully while living and working in Europe over the past few years, adding layers of finesse onto what was always a powerful voice.<\/p>\n

There was also a wonderful discovery here for me: Parisian contralto Delphine Galou, cast as Medoro. I’ve wondered for years if there could ever be an eventual successor for Ewa Podles — a true, goosebump-inducing contralto. Galou might be the one (although you can’t really tell until you hear a singer live).<\/p>\n

You can find audio samples and much more information (in French) on the album here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is a making-of video:<\/p>\n