Handel: Apollo e Dafne, HWV 122

Apollo e Dafne is an early work of Handel’s, completed at the latest by 1710 when he was 25 years old in Hanover, whence Handel departed in 1710 after Agrippina had made such an impact in Venice. He thence decamped to London in the autumn of 1710, perhaps as a propagandist for the Hannoverian succession, and may even have had political duties to attend to in secret, while carrying on a spectacularly successful musical charm‐offensive in favour of George and Germany. If this is the case, then we could see the dance suite of music from The Alchymist (HWV43) as advanced publicity, carefully planned to prepare Handel’s arrival.

Whatever: both works here are the works of a youthful and exuberant outpouring of genius. They both were conceived in theatrical Catholic Italy, only to achieve their final form in the Protestant North. In this transformation process they seem to have lost none of their vigour and warmth; and today they charm us still as they must have charmed when new, like a whiff from distant lemon groves through the London fog and the rain. Jed Wentz and his consort Musica ad Rhenum are stalwarts of the extensive catalogue of historically informed recordings on Brilliant Classics. They draw on the rich performance and scholarly tradition of early music in The Netherlands, and their recordings of Bach, Handel, Couperin, Rameau and more have, since the group's foundation in 1992, won critical praise.

Recorded 2006.

Contains notes on the music as well as artist biographies.

Contains a libretto for Apollo e Dafne.

The cantus firmus consort under the experienced leadership of Andreas Reize present Handel’s Apollo e Dafne together with four other compositions by Handel, including two suites from the lost opera Die verwandelte Daphne and a chaconne from the ballet Terpsichore.

For the final volume in Fabio Bonizzoni’s survey of cantatas written by Handel during his stay in Italy, the background scenery moves – like a reflection of the Grand Tour – from Rome to Naples; probably the troubled times in a Rome besieged by Imperial troops during the War of the Spanish Succession may have encouraged the young, itinerant Saxon musician to consider that heading down south was safer and more conducive for his overall career prospects.

It was a time when Handel was conceiving the three highly-charged cantatas to be heard on this disc and he would have been aware that Naples was blessed with a bass singer, Domenico Antonio Manna, possessed of a prodigious vocal range, encompassing two octaves and a fifth. It is possible that Handel wrote two of the pieces performed on this disc – Apollo e Dafne and Cuopre tal volta il cielo – with Manna in mind, even if the former cantata was perhaps completed after Handel had reached Hannover. Carlo Vitali’s engaging booklet essay colourfully helps to summon up early 18th century Neapolitan culture and Handel’s potential place within it. Joining Fabio Bonizzoni and La Risonanza for these modern-day realisations of the Baroque Italian musical world experienced by Handel are Furio Zanasi and Thomas Bauer for the bass roles, as well as soprano Roberta Invernizzi, an integral feature of this revelatory and muchpraised Handel series since its inception.

For the second Glossa Portrait release the spotlight falls upon the soprano Roberta Invernizzi. It was the inspired choice of Fabio Bonizzoni to involve the Milanese singer in his series of Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, and Invernizzi appeared on no less than five of the seven discs in that greatly-admired series. This 2-disc Portrait draws on those recordings to highlight the delicious characterisations of Invernizzi in Handel’s vivid and visceral portrayals of nymphs and goddesses such as Diana, Cloris, Amarilis, Lidia and Fili, Arcadian characters one and all but nonetheless human in personality.

Roberta Invernizzi is gifted with an ability to master the technical, expressive and temperamental challenges set by Baroque composers such as Vivaldi, Monteverdi and Alessandro Scarlatti and she has also added a scintillating theatrical verve to many of the incursions into Neapolitan opera buffa in the company of Antonio Florio.

In 1706 Handel was commissioned to set to music an extensive libretto based on the ancient myth of Daphne and Apollo. It was not seen on the stage until 1708 and was a very long work, divided into two sections. He reset the work in 1710 and this recording combines his two compositions.

This is the next release in Phoenix Edition’s WDR Cologne Broadcasts series featuring the Capella Coloniensis. The Capella Coloniensis have been a leading orchestra in the field of historical performance practice since they were founded in 1954.

To celebrate Handel’s anniversary year Phoneix Edition are delighted to present a recording of Apollo e Daphne, one of Handel’s most ambitions early cantatas. The graceful orchestration and plaintive melodies are what makes this one act opera enchanting and it is indicative of the fruitful operatic career that was to follow.

This authentic historical recording is available at an attractive low price.