Franco Fagioli - Veni, Vidi, Vinci (2020) [Official Digital Download 24/192]

Too often assimilated by journalists or distracted music lovers to the great genius of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo Vinci is a Neapolitan Baroque composer of the eighteenth century whose reputation comes mainly from his thirty-seven operas composed for the great castrates of his time and played in the Royal Chapel of Naples where he was the successor of Alessandro Scarlatti. After his album devoted to a selection of tunes by Handel, Argentine counter-tenor Franco Fagioli chose a dozen tunes from Leonardo Vinci's operas, more than half of which are world premieres. There are voluptuous or Virtuoso tunes from Il trionfo Di Camilla, gismondo re Di Polonia, L'ernelinda, Alessandro Nell'indie and Medo.

Vinci's operas were often custom - written for the "stars" of an era that revered singers as was done much later for film actors. The tunes of Il trionfo Di Camilla were originally composed for the prima donna Faustina Bordoni and those of Medo for the illustrious castrat Farinelli.
As for the magnificent pastoral air "quell'usignolo Ch'è innamorato De Gismondo", it pleasantly evokes the singing of Nightingales with two mandatory beaked flutes. It is a music full of life and dramatic expression that is reborn here with the complicity of the ensemble Il pomo d'oro, conducted with verve by its "concertmaster", the Bulgarian violinist Zefira Valova.

TRACKLIST

1. Franco Fagioli - "Sembro quell'usignuolo"
2. Franco Fagioli - "Più non so finger sdegni"
3. Franco Fagioli - "Ove corri?"
4. Franco Fagioli - "Sorge talora fosca l'aurora"
5. Franco Fagioli - "Gelido in ogni vena"
6. Franco Fagioli - "Quell'usignolo che innamorato"
7. Franco Fagioli - "Barbara, mi schernisci"
8. Franco Fagioli - "Nave altera"
9. Franco Fagioli - "Nube di denso orrore"
10. Franco Fagioli - "Sull'ali del suo amor"
11. Franco Fagioli - "Vil trofeo d'un'alma imbelle"
12. Franco Fagioli - "Scherzo dell'onda instabile"
13. Franco Fagioli - Recitativo: "Oh da me troppo offesa, troppo amabil Medea"
14. Franco Fagioli - "Sento due fiamme in petto"