Théophile Alexandre / Guillaume Vincent ADN BAROQUE

The countertenor Théophile Alexandre and the concert-pianist Guillaume Vincent dare baring baroque music in Piano-Voice. In 21 pieces, like the 21 grammes of human soul, the artists dive us into the heard of mankind emotional DNA, exposing unheard facets of baroque essence : an audacious contemporary réinvention exploring the strengths and vulnerabilities of mankind through the powerful intimacy of piano-voice. Included : 4 duets with the sopranos Chantal Santon & Marion Tassou.

Delphine Galou / Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone AGITATA

Delphine Galou is renowned and admired for her musicality and her appealing timbre. She has taken part in many productions of Baroque music and recordings of operas (notably by Vivaldi), but this is her first recital. It is a programme of sacred music, motets, cantatas and excerpts from oratorios, which in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were influenced by the increasingly fashionable genre of opera. From the famous ‘Agitata infido flatu’ from Vivaldi’s oratorio Juditha triumphans, here counterpointed by an aria from another setting of the story of Judith composed by Jommelli, to Stradella’s Lamentations and Porpora’s magnificent motet ‘In procella sine stella’, Delphine Galou covers a wide range of spiritual emotions. She is accompanied by the excellent Accademia Bizantina under its director and harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone. A concerto by Gregori and a sinfonia by Caldara complete this release, which includes several world premiere recordings. 

Jaroussky / Emmanuelle Haïm / Le Concert d'Astrée CARESTINI The Story of a Castrato

French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky astonishes once again with a program of arias associated with castrato Giovanni Carestini. At the peak of Carestini's career, his supremacy was challenged only by that of Farinelli, the other reigning castrato of the era. Frédéric Delaméa's extremely informative booklet note relates that contemporary opinion, while it held that Farinelli had more technical facility, was that Carestini used his voice more expressively than Farinelli. Charles Burney wrote, "Carestini gratified the eye as much by the dignity, grace, and propriety of [his] action and deportment, as the ear by judicious use of a few notes within the limits of a small vocal compass."

Carestini, who was born in 1700, enjoyed a 38-year career, which is impressive even by modern standards. As a teenager, he acquired the patronage of Cardinal Agostino Cusani of Milan. From his debut in Milan, he traveled to Rome, Parma, Naples, and the other major musical cities in Italy. When he was 32, he went to London, where he spent two seasons singing roles written specifically for him by Handel, and creating a sensation. He then returned to the European mainland, and conquered new territory, including Dresden, Berlin, and, near the end of his career, St. Petersburg. Apparently, by 1758, his voice, heretofore carefully preserved, gave out, and his last appearance in Naples was a failure. "He withdrew immediately from public life," writes Delaméa, "and died two years later."

This program is in chronological order, from Porpora's Siface, in which Carestini appeared in 1725 or 1726, to Graun's Orfeo, which was premièred a quarter-century later. Most of these areas are unfamiliar, but certainly worth any listener's attention. I was particularly drawn to the two closing areas from Orfeo. For the most part, the Baroque revival has not yet caught up with Graun. We are due for major new productions of his operas, particularly the outstanding Montezuma (to which Joan Sutherland and husband Richard Bonynge briefly turned their attention in the 1960s). The first aria presented here, "Mio bel nume," is profoundly moving, and "In mirar la mia sventura" is a fiery virtuoso piece.

And Jaroussky … well, what a voice! No other countertenor at work today produces a sound of such beauty and touching clarity. It isn't a masculine sound, to be sure, but neither is it disconcertingly feminine – it's really in its own category. (His speaking voice, by the way, is clearly male.) As such, it might take some getting used to, but once you do, I expect that you'll find yourself often moved to tears by its purity, and also impressed by its range. Also moving is the effortless manner in which he deploys it, even in the most complicated music. It would be wonderful to know what Carestini sounded like, but given Burney's description, is it not possible that Jaroussky would have given Carestini a run for his money?

Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d'Astrée provide Jaroussky with stylish and scholarly support, as does the engineering team. In addition to the aforementioned booklet note, there are complete texts and English translations. In the last aria, though, surely stigi should be translated as "Stygian" not "Scythians," no? (Copyright © 2008, Raymond Tuttle) 

Franco Fagioli ARIAS FOR CAFFARELLI

Franco Fagioli is one of the leading countertenors of the new generation. His performances as Handel heroes have been unanimously acclaimed. Born in San Miguel de Tucumán (Argentina) in 1981, he studied the piano in his home town, then singing at the Instituto Superiore de Arte of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In 1997 he founded the choir of San Martín de Porres for the adolescents of his region. He then began to specialise in the countertenor register.

In 2003 Franco Fagioli won the prestigious Bertelsmann singing competition Neue Stimmen in Germany, which marked the start of his international career. Since then, he has appeared at the Teatro Colón, the Karlsruhe, Bonn, Essen, and Zurich operas, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, among others. He has enjoyed immense success with his interpretation of the title role of Giulio Cesare in Zurich, Helsinki, Oslo, and Karlsruhe. In 2011 he was awarded the Premio Abbiati in Italy and the Italian magazine L’Opera named him best countertenor of the year for his performance as Bertarido in Rodelinda.

Notable appearances in the past few seasons have included Handel’s Teseo (Staatsoper Stuttgart), Ariodante (Karlsruhe Handel Festival), and Bertarido (Martina Franca), Telemaco/Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (the work’s Argentinian premiere), Gluck’s Orfeo (Teatro Colón), Cavalli’s Giasone with Chicago Opera Theater, and the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar at the Teatro Argentino de La Plata. During the 2010/11 season, he sang Nerone/L’incoronazione di Poppea in Cologne and Dresden and Arsace/Aureliano in Palmira at the Festival della Valle d’Itria. His engagements in 2011/12 included revivals of L’incoronazione di Poppea, a new production of Giulio Cesare in Helsinki, Poro in Halle and Basel, and Arbace/Artaserse (Hasse) at Martina Franca.

In November 2009, his first solo recital in Europe, at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, ended with a standing ovation. He has also appeared with Cecilia Bartoli in London and Brussels as the special guest of the prima donna. Franco Fagioli works regularly with such conductors as Rinaldo Alessandrini, Alan Curtis, Diego Fasolis, Gabriel Garrido, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Michael Hofstetter, René Jacobs, Konrad Junghänel, Jose Manuel Quintana, Marc Minkowski, Riccardo Muti, and Christophe Rousset.

His discography includes Gluck’s Ezio, Handel’s Teseo and Berenice, the solo album Canzone e cantate, and Vinci’s Artaserse with Philippe Jaroussky, Max Emanuel Cencic, Daniel Behle, and Concerto Köln.

Patricia Petibon ROSSO Italian Baroque Arias

One of the great pleasures of attending the theatre is to see a singer come out onstage when the curtain rises and to know that the mere fact of her appearing will put you in a good mood, even if you can already sense from the orchestra that she will be singing something som- bre, moving or emotionally charged. Strange though it may seem, sadness, too, can be a source of pleasure in this way. And that pleasure increases as soon as the singer opens her mouth. Life’s difficulties are all swept away and forgotten. Patricia Petibon achieves this marvellous feat: she makes you happy even when what she is singing brings tears to your eyes. But the most astonishing thing of all about the present programme is the exceptionally close correlation between her own very special qualities and the music that she performs. Patricia Petibon sings all kinds of music from Lully and Handel to Mozart, Debussy and Bernstein but is particularly fond of Baroque music. Even so, it was not with this that she began her career. “When I arrived at the Paris Conservatoire and studied with Rachel Yakar,” she recalls, “I worked on all sorts of music with her. At that time I also sang Zerbinetta in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. I continue to love all kinds of music: to sing the part of a nun in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites is as moving as lending my voice to all the lovers I’ve recorded.” As for the Baroque period, it was her meet- ing with William Christie which, as she herself acknowl- edges, “pointed me in the right direction”. The music that Patricia Petibon sings on this new recording is a distillation of early opera, a genre that began in Italy before spreading to the rest of Europe. Baroque sensibilities, coupled with the tastes and pleasures of the time, could hardly be satisfied with a style of musical declamation that contemporaries de- scribed as “spianata” – plain and simple. They needed an element of surprise: they needed emotion and wonderment. Composers, audiences and, above all, singers wanted a sense of the marvellous, a magical aspect that even suggested folly: in short, a style described as “fiorito”. The poetry became the servant of the music, which sought to characterize the affetti, or affections, giving rise to a new, closed form, the da capo aria, which allowed the emotions to find lyrical expression, whether that expression was dramatic or more light- weight, and allowed the singer to develop that emotion through his or her vocal virtuosity. Emotion was in this way combined with wonderment. The Baroque world is deliberately located in a world of unreality, vocal mar- vels reflecting a staging filled with apparitions, flying machines and clouds. It echoes the lyricism of Bernini’s Saint Teresa, just as the architectural virtuosity of Francesco Borromini showcased that of the singers in the churches that he designed. As Patricia Petibon says, she tries to “act out what the music says”. The Handel arias that she has recorded here are in themselves enough to provide a cross-section of all the musical and emotional possibilities of Italianate opera of this period. (Excerpts from the booklet text accompanying the album)