Vivaldi
Arsilda
Benedetta Mazzucato (mezzo-soprano) et al; La Cetra Basel/Andrea Marcon
Naïve OP8676 169:19 mins (3CD)
Clip: Vivaldi – Arsilda, Atto II Scena 14 Recit - Se scoprir la sua pena
Vivaldi’s 1716 opera Arsilda revolves around the eponymous heroine and her beloved fiancée, Prince Tamese. When Tamese is believed to have drowned at sea, his twin sister, Lisea, secretly disguises herself as her apparently deceased brother in order to save the dynastic throne. As you might imagine, problems arise on the wedding day of ‘Tamese’ and Arsilda (much to the latter’s frustration), and when the real Tamese appears, incognito as the court gardener, the tangled Baroque plot becomes a veritable comedy of errors. Vivaldi sets Domenico Lalli’s bizarre narrative to a series of taught recitatives and da capo arias that span the musical gamut, from turbulent ‘storm arias’ to pastoral ‘birdsong arias’ whose programmatic warblings recall The Four Seasons.
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Benedetta Mazzucato does her best to breathe life into the rather static title role with her incisive diction and warm, pliant mezzo. Leonardo Cortellazzi makes a refined Tamese, his bell-like tenor soave and agile enough to cope with a role at once lyrical and virtuosic. Vivaldi actually reserves his most highly charged music for the more complex character of Lisea, ardently sung here by mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya who draws on an expressive palette of colours to paint the wide-ranging part. Among the other roles, soprano Marie Lys as Mirinda and bass José Coca Loza as Cisardo both captivate, while ‘sopranista’ Nicolò Balducci as Barzane – a role originally written for castrato – scales Vivaldi’s stratospheric writing with terrific bravura. Harpsichordist and director Andrea Marcon draws alert playing from his excellent Swiss-based ensemble La Cetra. Kate Bolton-Porciatti