Ombra mai fu - Francesco Cavalli Opera Arias

This recording confirmed my suspicion that Cavalli's operas have been unjustly neglected. Jaroussky's selection is extremely persuasive and the performances by singers and chamber orchestra are superb. I strongly recommend it to all lovers of baroque operatic music

Huge artist and wonderful music . Fantastic presentation

Sadly not up to Jarousky's standards

This is a collection of arias and scenas from the operas of Francesco Cavalli, Monteverdi's most brilliant pupil and distinguished successor in the development of Italian baroque opera. It is sung by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, accompanied by the excellent period-instrument ensemble Artaserse. Jaroussky is also joined in three duets by soprano Emöke Baráth and contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux respectively. The chosen arias and duets demonstrate the versatile range of emotions and expression which distinguish Cavalli's work. The items are organised, with a few instrumental sinfonias interspersed, so as to provide variety of mood and tempo, often following closely one upon another so as to offer an engaging musical sequence.Jaroussky is in great form throughout, making the most of many fine opportunities to demonstrate his powers of expression and vocal agility. The dozen or so members of the ensemble use a wide range of instruments including strings, cornetti, recorders and continuo, and provide very alert and stylish accompaniment throughout. Among the many delights on the disc are the first item, 'Ombra mai fu' from Cavalli's 'Serse', not perhaps comparable with Handel's equivalent magical melody but a graceful aria nonetheless. It's followed by the warlike 'All'armi, mio core' from 'Statira', . From 'Erismena' comes a lovelorn lament (one of Cavalli's specialities), ' Uscitemi dal cor, lagrime amare' (track 4). A scena from 'Calisto' (5-6) introduces the beautiful and expressive contralto voice of Marie-Nicole Lemieux. 'Elena' provides the heartfelt duet 'Mio diletto, mio sospiro' (8) with the wonderful Emöke Baráth. From 'Eliogabalo' comes another beautiful lament, 'Misero, così va' (10), followed by a complete change of mood with the pageboy Nerillo's breathlessly comic and skittish 'Che città' from 'Ormindo' (11), the ritornelli entertainingly passing in turn between strings, cornetti and recorders.'Misero Apollo' brings another graceful lament (13), followed by an arresting and attractively scored Sinfonia from 'Orione'. The interweaving of Jaroussky's and Baráth's voices in the duet 'O luci belle' from 'Eritrea' is especially beautiful (15). The short but attractive Sinfonia from 'Doriclea' is graced by stylish embellishments from the band (17), and this is followed by 'Lucidissima face', a captivating homage to the moon set to one of Cavalli's most enticing melodies (18). Returning to 'Serse', Jaroussky shows his great vocal agility in the quick tempo of 'La bellezza è un don fugace' (21), and the disc ends with a wistful song on a ground, 'Che pensi, mio core?', delicately rendered by singer and players alike, bringing the programme to a graceful conclusion,.Recorded sound is realistic and perfectly balanced, and we get a finely illustrated hardback booklet with an extremely informative essay by Jean-François Lattarico. Supporting documentation is also impeccable, and texts and translations are of course included. This is a lovely Cavalli programme full of great tunes, fine singing and instrumental work, offering not only an outstanding demonstration of the wide-ranging melodic and expressive qualities of Cavalli's operas but also a thoroughly enjoyable vehicle for the musical and dramatic talents of a great countertenor.

Philippe Jaroussky has a voice entirely made of light and his singing enlightens us as much as it lights up our minds. And the first track from Xerse gives us that tone of light end luminous happiness. The second track from Statira, Princessa di Persia is vigorous and it is a call to arms in a war that is starting straight away but in this powerful and courageous call for honor and defensive action there is now and then some sadness as if peace is already missed, peace and the satisfaction of desires. But heroic war is the call of the moment, and of the brave.Then we move to Erismena and at once we know it is dramatic. Idraspe is taken away from the person Idraspe love and this already sad moment is followed with a long lamentation, a lament per se, with tears and moaning voices. The luminous voice then gets dark and poignant, along with the music, in full phase with the music. We are brought down into pure deprivation, rejection, amputation of love and Idraspe’s’ heart is suffering the pangs of his emotional loss. There is so little life left when your love is negated and eradicated, or when you are uprooted out of the way and away from your love. And it has to end up with a call to die because death is the only solace Idraspe can find, can have, can afford.With Calisto, we get into a different type of deprivation. First, we have the moaning and sad lamentation of Linfea. Marie Noelle Lemieux gives the painful image of a woman who has lost what she loves, who cannot satisfy her desires and she finds some vigor, though slightly ambiguous when she sings the need of a man, “a good thing bringing only delight, comforting the soul,” and I guess not only the soul. But a Young satyr comes up and Philippe Jaroussky offers us the conquering and powerful singing of this satyr that Linfea does not exactly want to accept in her bed, as she says, But the satyr makes himself very convincing. But Linfea is not a foolish woman and she refuses the deal. But the satyr defends himself and tries to convince Linfea he is of noble descent and that his youth may explain his limited skill and his short tail but growing. But yet Linfea says no forcefully.With Elena, we expect tragic drama with Menelaus and Helen. But after a Sinfonia from Eliogabalo. Philippe Jaroussky is Menelaus and Emoke Barath is Helen. The contrast between the countertenor and the soprano are perfectly adapted and the closing duet is the proof they can intertwine their notes and yet be so distinctly one and the other that together they are like gold embedded in some silver or vice versa. And this duet becomes slowly full of sadness and pain, and we know why of course. The next sinfonia from Ercole Amante is full of languor but it restores some kind of mindful quiet in our souls. And we are ready to go to Eliogabalo and meet with Alexander, and a miserable Alexander at that, because he was attracted by some beauty and he thought that beauty was going to be faithful. The fool, the woman who has that beauty will not, of course, waste it on only one lover. Faithfulness is always out if beauty is the other side of the person you love. Beauty is a very expensive goods in this world and it has to be used as long as it lasts. And I understand Alexander’s word “loyalty” as meaning faithfulness, but it is a more militaristic term and Alexander is a general after all.From Ormindo, we get a danceful and joyful music and song. Poor Nerillo is surprised by the habits, customs and ways of behaving of the people in the city where he is. He does not like their cheerfulness, their friendliness, their empathy because it is all false for him because he does not see why he gets all that attention and care. The danceful music becomes then a satire of the urban life he is confronted to and satire it is, full and caustic.Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne proposes us an Apollo that is deprived of Dafne that has been changed into a laurel. This first moment is a surprise, shock, and powerlessness in front of this event. But then he gets into a long lamentation on his lot. He is the most important god or so and yet he is unable to enjoy his love and Dafne has been taken away. But he would have preferred her departing on her own to this situation where he is going to adore a bush in a garden, water the bush with his own tears and he will never be able to live and satisfy his love. The powerlessness of a god in the crying voice of Philippe Jaroussky, an oxymoron of light and night, of fire and watery tears is perfect. The Joyous Sinfonia from Orione is then welcome here to make us recapture our composure.Eritrea comes next with a duet of Laodicea and Theramene, Emoke Barath and Philippe Jaroussky. The pleasure here is the contrast between the two voices that are so close and yet so clearly different and their alliance, their coming together provides us with the pleasure of some sort of tearing apart the fabric of our concentration that is attracted one way or the other without ever being able to choose.With Giasone, Philippe Jaroussky is to express his tiredness or boredom with the pleasure of his satisfied love, the full satisfaction and the absence of any tension, danger, lack of anything. That feeling of being too happy and having no peril or danger to face is quite common in life when we have all we want and need to be happy but real happiness comes only if now and then there is some breach in this fabric, there is a sad and cruel event that reminds us that happiness is never forever. And Jason is best motivated to tell us this simple fact.Calisto gives us Endymion after a sinfonia from Dericlea. Endymion sings the beauty of the moon and says goodbye to the sun and welcome to the moon. No changing moon here like in Shakespeare, the inconstant moon of Juliet. Here the moon is all beauty, fair, soft and sweet light in the night of course. There is though a slightly nostalgic tone, as if something were missing, some power and energy that cannot be found here but the moon is supreme solace and it is able to pacify all hearts and minds, all lovers who can enjoy their love in the peace of the moon in the night.In La virtu de’ strali d’Amore, a shepherd, Clarindo just presents us with a forceful vigorous and gay dance in some kind of natural environment, some forest, some pasture.But this joy does not last long and with Pompeo Magno, as soon as the first notes are played and then sung we shift to a dramatic atmosphere, in which Sextus is trying to dissolve in the dark, in the night, to disappear and be unseen, to hide his love in a way for an unnamed person.And we can go back to Xerse and Eumene sings the beauty of a beautiful face and the fact that this beauty is a fleeting quality that disappears with age as fast as days and nights are passing one after another. And strangely enough, this piece does not contain any regret or sadness. It is told as if it were natural, and natural it is; as if it were a piece of advice, and a piece of advice it is to those who may believe this beauty is forever. It sounds a little bit like Shakespeare’s sonnets, and it really is the same thing, even if Shakespeare was speaking to a young man. Beauty is for everyone and has the same fleeting quality, the fugacity of the life of a rose.And we go back to La virtu de’ strali d’Amore. Here Erino defends the strangest possible reality that he says is justified and natural. Women want to be loved in a forceful way, and to be attacked and taken by force is also a promise of pleasure in this very act. The music and singing sounds in a way ambiguous, oxymoronic as if the singer was trying to express the cruelty of such love, the immorality of such love, the vanity of such love pleasure that millions of women have suffered. And we are told it is not the “privilege” of women only.Not to end up on this note Cupid comes from the same opera and he sings, from a man’s point of view, the way he is enslaved, in shackles because of his love for the beautiful woman he fell for and that beauty is like a prison especially if that love is constant, meaning loyal and faithful. A woman’s beauty is like a straitjacket for her lover who is not taken by force but who is made unable to love anyone else, no matter what. This faithfulness is the very human nature of a man in love. And the singing, the tone of Philippe Jaroussky in Cupid’s skin is even poignant. So, you can rest all night long with this contradiction between the woman who wants to be taken by force and the man who cannot go away from the beauty he loves.Really, life is no longer what it used to be if at least it ever was different in the past.Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

This new Jaroussky CD is beautifully presented with copious historical notes. Most of the music was new to me and much enjoyed. Jaroussky is in glorious voice and accompanied by Artaserse with a wonderful ensemble of period instruments. For those brought up on Raymond Leppard's Glyndebourne Cavalli, this CD will no doubt come as a shock, but don't be put off - this is the real deal. Jaroussky is also joined by 2 female companions, equally in great voice for some duo scenes. Altogether a great disc with so much to be enjoyed.