Carlo Vistoli, Ekaterina Protsenko et al; Baroque Orchestra Modo Antiquo/Federico Maria Sardelli
Naxos 8.660536-37 152:56 mins (2 discs)
Cavalli’s Il Xerse is something of a landmark opera. Composed mid-career in 1655, it was chosen (in a revised form, with additional music by Lully) to celebrate the marriage of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Spain in 1660. Its libretto, by Nicolò Minato, was later set by Handel. Unfortunately, I’m afraid this is no landmark recording.
The performance comes from the 2022 Valle d’Itria Festival in Martina Franca, which saw the opera’s prologue cut and several scenes removed. The production was staged in the town’s restored 1930s cinema, and sound engineers have done little to remove audience and on-stage noise. Worse, the singers’ annoying hand claps (ordered by the director) that signal the beginning and end of recitatives have been left in.
The opera concerns the complex amorous affairs of Xerxes of Persia and is basically a high comedy. But the humour is roughly delivered by singers whose enunciation and diction (essential aspects of early Baroque Italian opera) are variable at best.
Countertenor Carlo Vistoli is an unremarkable Xerxes. His opening ‘Ombra mai fu’ passes almost unnoticed, although the extended aria ‘Lasciatemi morire’ is more expressively delivered. As Romilda, the object of Xerxes’s desire, Carolina Lippo displays shaky intonation and a strained upper register. Dioklea Hoxha, as her sister Adelanta, is fairer voiced.
Gaia Petrone is a serviceable Arsamene, the king’s brother, but fails to exploit the vocal and dramatic potential of the role. Ekaterina Protsenko hardly makes a mark as Amastre, Xerxes’s wronged betrothed. Instrumentalists from the Orchestra Barocca Modo Antiquo under Federico Maria Sardelli fail to get a handle on Cavalli’s score, and there are far too many sour notes in the strings.