Caffarelli, castrato assoluto, was a famed rival to the more
famous Farinelli. Born Gaetano Majorano in Bitonto in 1710 - he was
to die in Naples in 1783 - he studied with his rival’s teacher,
Nicola Porpora. He travelled across Europe, singing in the most prestigious
opera houses, earning huge amounts and behaving exceptionally badly.
His one season in London in 1737-38 singing for Handel was, however,
a resounding failure and it’s to the repertoire of the Naples
School that this disc turns in order to present arias most associated
with this most touchy, querulous and downright rude castrato of the
eighteenth-century.
It falls to counter-tenor Franco Fagioli to bring these scenes to
life and he does so with spectacular results. Hasse’s Fra
l’orror della tempesta shows the singer starting as he means
to go on. His florid vocalism, which admits of a sometimes curiously
intrusive chest voice, embarks on a tour-de-force of theatricality;
on the plus side it’s impossible to ignore, on the debit side
it’s all just a bit relentless. Much better is the lyric legato
he finds in the same composer’s Ebbi de te la vita where
I detect hints of David Daniels’ tonal colour. It’s inevitable
in recitals of this kind that the gentle is immediately contrasted
with the fast and furious - maybe a baroque aria recital will one
day not do this - in the form of Vinci’s In braccio a mille
furie. That said, it can’t be doubted that Fagioli’s
divisions, trills and declamation are remarkable; likewise that Il
Pomo d’Oro are equally dramatic exponents of the repertoire,
fully entering into the viscous vitality of the music-making. Given
that he is vaguely reminiscent of Cecilia Bartoli as well as, sometimes,
Daniels surely suggests the level of theatrical engagement that Fagioli
brings to music which is very hard otherwise to locate on disc.
Some of Fagioli’s best singing, and some of the best orchestral
playing, come in Pergolesi’s Lieto così talvolta
which is the longest aria and one that reveals his enviably fluttering
but precise coloratura. Some of the most exciting is to be heard in
Leo’s Sperai vicino il lido where alternating lyricism
and quicksilver virtuosity convincingly convey the bipartite emotive
states.
Throughout, Riccardo Minasi encourages the brass, in particular, to
flare dramatically in support of the martial or otherwise militant
feelings of the counter-tenor hero. There is also space for the oboe
principal beautifully to lend her obbligato in the Pergolesi aria.
Such felicitous touches abound. Indeed Fagioli, for all his occasional
exaggerations, remains a truly dramatic exponent of this repertoire
and he evokes its milieu with panache and no little sensitivity.
Jonathan Woolf
Previous review (Recording of the month): Göran
Forsling
Track listing
Johann Adolf HASSE (1699-1783)
Siroe; Fra l’orror della tempersta (1733) [5:05]
Siroe; Ebbi de te la vita (1733) [7:26]
Leonardo LEO (1690-1730)
Semiramide riconosciuta; In braccio a mille furie (1744) [5:09]
Demofoonte; Misero pargoletto (1741) [7:38]
Demofoonte; Sperai vicino il lido (1741) [6:11]
Nicola Antonio PORPORA (1686-1768)
Semiramide riconosciuta; Passaggier che sulla sponda (1739) [6:22]
Giovanni Battista PERGOLESI (1710-1736)
Adriano in Siria; Lieto così talvolta (1734) [11:12]
Pasquale CAFARO (1716-1787)
L’Ipermestra; Rendimi più sereno (1751) [8:03]
Domenico SARRO (1679-1744)
Valdemaro; Un cor che ben ama (1726) [4:34]
Gennaro MANNA (1715-1779)
Lucio Vero ossia il vologeso (1745) [8:43]
Lucio Papiro dittatore (1748) [8:09]
