Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante - Francesco Cavalli: La Didone (2007)

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Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante - Francesco Cavalli: La Didone (2007)

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Preceded by a solemn prologue in which Iride admonishes mortals that they should not offend the gods, the story of Cavalli’s Didone comes to life thanks to numerous solo passages of highly varied character and structure, designed both for simple basso continuo support and for a more complex instrumental accompaniment, for five real parts which enjoy some independent moments and which create a diversion from the action or blend in with it in a wholly logical way, intensifying it in a studied, evocative manner. The tragic story of the Carthaginian queen is thus unfolded with extreme attention in a framework that had already been adopted by Monteverdi, of whom Cavalli is considered a worthy successor. In this case it is enlivened and, we might say, given a more popular, direct appeal as it aims to communicate with a public that is gradually expanding. The composer is sincere when he states: ”My spirit has always been far from the printing press: I have preferred to allow my weaknesses to run where fortune takes them with the pen rather than the press.” He identifies with the torment of Didone and with the ”force of nature” (Prunières) that is his and the brilliance of some of his solutions, he creates one of the most tragic, tormented operas of the entire seventeenth century.
…Claron McFadden has a veiled, aristocratic tone, and a chaste attention to the musical line that doesn’t preclude expressiveness—as witness her foiled suicide (“Porgetemi la spada dei semideo troiano”). Good in this latter respect, too, is Jordi Domènech as Corebo, with far more attention to the words, their enunciation, and meaning than in Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula (Ambroisie 133). Maria Grazia Schiavo’s pert tone doesn’t quite make for an ideal goddess of love and beauty, but her voice is agile, and there’s her usual musical intelligence at work.
Best of all is Fabio Biondi. He finds plenty of vitality in the score—as well as a reasonable sense of pacing to the recitative based upon stage effectiveness—but there’s an awareness, too, of the value of sentiment. Where several of Biondi’s fellow Italian conductors in the early-music field are willing to treat slow, emotive numbers as unnecessary speed bumps in a race to the finish, he recognizes both the general need for contrast, and the opera’s strong use of internal contrasts to mirror life. His own solo playing is of course excellent, as is that of his expert ensemble, Europa Galante. His “critical revision” of the score will annoy some, but it bears remembering that opera composers in the 17th century displayed a willingness to accept both stage and major orchestration changes to fit the needs of the moment.

–Barry Brenesal

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Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante - Francesco Cavalli: La Didone (2007)

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Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante - Francesco Cavalli: La Didone (2007)

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Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante - Francesco Cavalli: La Didone (2007)

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Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante - Francesco Cavalli: La Didone (2007)

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