Handel - Italian Cantatas Volume 5 - Rome, (1707)

May 2009

*****

“The performance here is one of smouldering sensuality. The verve of the director's gestures generates huge excitement, while the sharp contrast of colours between each singer's voice - the translucence of Roberta Invernezzi, lustre of Yetzabel Fernández, and darkness of Romina Basso - enriches the tapestry of sound. Vocalists match passion with gorgeous ornamentation...”

2010

“Probably composed for his principal Roman patron Marquis Francesco Maria Ruspoli in autumn 1707, Handel's pastoral drama, Cor fedele,in vano speri (usually called by its nickname 'Clori, Tirsi e Fileno') tells the story of the fickle serial seductress Clori and her two rival shepherd lovers Tirsi and Fileno. Despite taking oaths of fidelity to each, her intrigue is eventually exposed, and the three members of the love triangle agree to coexist peacefully as long as all concerned get some satisfaction from the arrangement.
Fabio Bonizzoni seems keen to emphasise the operatic atmosphere of this music, and the three singers are ideally cast. Roberta Invernizzi's virtuoso coloratura in Tirsi's furious denouncing of Clori in 'Tra le fere' is magnificent (the oboe solo passagework by Andrea Mion is also impressive). Yetzabel Arias Fernández is a fruitier and deeper soprano than Invernizzi but still perfectly in proportion with the articulate music-making. Leila Schayegh's solo fiddling in 'Barbaro, tu non credi' is by turns brilliant and beguiling, as the minx Clori uses contrasting passionate fast music and mock-sorrowful slower passages to wangle her way back into Tirsi's favour. Fileno's “Sai perchè l'onda” is plaintively sung by Romina Basso.
Recitatives are performed with perfect poetic clarity and dramatic timing. Bonizzoni's Italian ensemble astutely diagnoses and communicates the affect of each movement in some of the youthful Handel's most freely imaginative music. The balance between instruments is consistently fine, warm and lyrical. In particular, Bonizzoni has the admirable knack of conveying the strong rhetorical elements in Handel's vivacious music, and the entire performance is beautifully executed with subtlety and charm. This is another essential disc from La Risonanza, whose project is shaping up to become the most rewarding Handelian discographic undertaking of the decade.”

June 2009

“…Bonizzoni has the admirable knack of conveying the strong rhetorical elements in Handel's vivacious music, and the entire performance is beautifully executed with subtlety and charm.”

4th March 2009

“This recording would have benefited from having three female voices more sharply differentiated in character, but the performance keeps the slender plot buoyed up.”