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Carestini – The Story of a Castrato Nicola PORPORA (1686-1768)
Siface: Tu che d'ardire m'attendi (Erminio) [3:24] Giovanni Maria CAPELLI (1648-1726)
I fratelli riconosciuti: Ciel nemico (Attalo) [7:13] Georg Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
Arianna in Creta: Ove son... Qui ti sfido (Teseo) [3:58]
Ariodante: Scherza, infida (Ariodante) [9:50]
Alcina: Sta nell'ircana [5:55]
Alcina: Mi lusinga [7:01] Leonardo LEO (1694-1744)
Farnace: Se mi dai morte (Farnace) [4:04] Johann Adolf HASSE (1699-1783)
La clemenza di Tito: Se mai senti (Sextus) [7:37]
La clemenza di Tito: Vo disperato (Sextus) [2:54] Christoph Willibald von
GLUCK (1714-1787)
Demofoonte: Sperai vicino il lido [7:39] Carl Heinrich GRAUN (1704-1759)
Orfeo: Mio bel nieme [7:59]
Orfeo: In mirar la mia sventura [4:24]
Philippe Jaroussky
(counter-tenor)
Le Concert d`Astrée/Emmanuelle Haïm
rec. IRCAM, Paris, January 2006 VIRGIN CLASSICS
3952422 [72:06]
I
chose Jaroussky’s Vivaldi disc, called “Heroes,” as a Record
of the Year in 2007 and it was fully deserved – supremely athletic
and vital singing (Virgin Classics 3634142 - see review).
Now, instead of Ensemble Matheus and Jean-Christophe
Spinosi, he’s teamed up with Le Concert
d`Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm for another disc, one that sports
the title “Carestini – The Story of a Castrato.”
Carestini,
born in 1700, was the famed rival of Farinelli and the disc
is a kind of musical autobiography that traces music associated
with Carestini throughout his long career. This means that we
cross Europe in pursuit of the ever-active castrato; Milan,
Rome, Vienna, Venice, Naples, London and Dresden. And the composers
are ones who wrote for him; Capelli and Porpora early on – Porpora
even wrote Flavio Anicio Olibrio in which Carestini and
Farnielli (then known merely as Carlo Broschi) first met and
sang together. Then of course Handel and the famous spat between
Handel’s troupe and the rival Opera of the Nobility whose star
import was Carestini’s 1722 Rome rival, none other than Farinelli.
The
disc then traces these musical mileposts and does so with a
judicious selection of arias. Jaroussky’s is a feminine-sounding
instrument and one capable of considerable feats of virtuosity.
He provides plenty of thrills and sings, for most of the time,
with admirable discretion and intelligence as regards divisions,
ornaments and voice deployment. He’s aided by Haim, in top form;
I only query her questionable orchestral rallentando in the
Porpora – it sounds excessively drawn out. Otherwise there are
none of the eccentricities and exaggerations that have occasionally
betrayed her on disc of late.
The
Capelli is a finely accomplished piece of work, fluid, flexible,
sung with concentrated purity and accompanied by some first
rate violin and wind playing. Similarly the runs in the aria
from Handel’s Arianna in Creta are crystal clear though
once or twice we hear what will become a greater problem later
on in the recital – an over-reliance on the chest, or baritone
register of his voice. Here it works reasonably well in the
interests of theatrical projection. One might object however
that Jaroussky’s voice is not one capable of much expressive
latitude; its feminine purity is certainly evident in Scherza,
infida but there is nothing like the plangency or depth
that David Daniels finds in the aria, nor indeed the breadth
of colour.
His
finer qualities can be admired best in Mi lusinga from Alcina which
is done with rapt simplicity and finely chiselled tonal qualities.
Where he is disappointing is in Gluck’s Sperai vicino il
lido from Demofoonte where the intrusive natural
voice breaks fracture the purity of the line. This is far more
marked in the last aria, from Gluck’s Orfeo -In mirar
la mia sventura - which regrettably ends the disc on something
of a low. His registral choices here are a serious miscalculation;
whilst it’s thrilling to hear the horns given their head, Jaroussky’s
descents to the chesty depths are untypical – but here ruinous – examples
of a lack of taste.
I
certainly don’t want to end leaving the impression that this
is a pervasive failing but failing it is. In an attempt to bring
the more theatrical aspects of the alto castrato to life Jaroussky
has overstepped the mark. Elsewhere he shows himself to be a
singer of refinement and elegance. There is a fine, excellently
illustrated booklet and the texts are in four languages.
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