Vivaldi, Antonio
Bajazet / Fabio Biondi [2-cds + Bonus Dvd]

出品者からのコメント

Vivaldi: Bajazet / Biondi, Europa Galante

Release Date: 05/10/2005
Label: Virgin Classics Catalog #: 45676 Spars Code: DDD
Composer: Antonio Vivaldi
Performer: Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Marijana Mijanovic, Vivica Genaux, David Daniels, ...
Conductor: Fabio Biondi
Orchestra/Ensemble: Europa Galante
Number of Discs: 3
Recorded in: Stereo
Length: 2 Hours 26 Mins.
EAN: 0724354567629


Works on This Recording

1. Bajazet, RV 703 "Tamerlano" by Antonio Vivaldi
Performer: Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Bass Baritone), Marijana Mijanovic (Mezzo Soprano), Vivica Genaux (Mezzo Soprano),
David Daniels (Counter Tenor), Elina Garanca (Mezzo Soprano), Patrizia Ciofi (Soprano),
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Bass), David Daniels (Countertenor)
Conductor: Fabio Biondi
Orchestra/Ensemble: Europa Galante
Period: Baroque
Written: 1735; Verona, Italy
Venue: Flagey Studio 4, Musica Numeris, Brussel
Length: 146 Minutes 26 Secs.
Language: Italian
Notes: For this recording Fabio Biondi revised the libretto by Agostino Piovene and created a critical edition for the opera. The score itself is a pasticcio, and contains Vivaldi's reworkings of arias by his contemporaries including Johann Adolf Hasse, Geminiano Giacomelli, and Ricardo Broschi.
Flagey Studio 4, Musica Numeris, Brussels, Belgium (04/10/2004 - 04/15/2004)


Notes and Editorial Reviews

Artistic Quality: 10
Sound Quality: 10
This stunning work is one of the 50 operas composed on the subject of the bloody rivalry between the Tartar tyrant Tamerlano, whose methods of intimidation included constructing towers made up of his enemies heads (120 towers of 750 heads in Baghdad alone), and the proud Ottoman sultan, Bajazet, who after being imprisoned by Tamerlano opted for suicide rather than submission. In the opera, Tamerlano, though promised to the selfish princess Irene, loves Bajazet's daughter Asteria, who tries to kill Tamerlano twice. Asteria loves and is loved by Andronico, a confederate of Tamerlano's; Idaspe is a confidante of Andronico. Believe it or not, after Bajazet's suicide, Tamerlano is satisfied, and he pardons Asteria and Andronico.

The opera is a pastiche: It contains music by Vivaldi, some original, some adapted from earlier operas (all the recitatives and arias for Bajazet and Asteria); arias by Hasse, Giocomelli, and Carlo Broschi (brother of the famous castrato, Farinelli) reworked by Vivaldi; and three (also by Vivaldi) that have been chosen by conductor Fabio Biondi where they were missing from the score. With the exception of the last three mentioned, though, it must be remembered that the work was entirely overseen by Vivaldi; it is assuredly "his".

Conductor and cast throw themselves into this recording with a theatrical passion rarely encountered on CD: only René Jacobs' recent Cosi and Figaro come to mind, and by nature those operas are more stageworthy. Recits are spat out in this vicious story, and the arias--many of the simile type (I'm a turtledove; I'm like a ship on a storm-tossed sea)--actually are put across as if they were relevant. Bajazet, here sung and acted to perfection by Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, touches the heart with his desperate, second-act "Dov'è la figlia", in which he thinks his daughter has betrayed him by marrying Tamerlano; elsewhere, he sings with noble mien and fluent coloratura.

David Daniels may have too beautiful a voice for the role of Tamerlano, but his delivery is forceful, grand-mannered, and tough, and the singing itself is ravishing. Marijana Mijanovic sings the role of Asteria forcefully and with great dignity, her dark, lower register as stunning as her free middle and top. Vivica Genaux dazzles with her perfect coloratura as Irene in two arias composed for Farinelli; you wish the part were larger. Patrizia Ciofi's Idaspe contains the opera's highest-lying music; she handles it with ease, a pinched very high note aside. And Elina Garanca makes the most of Andronico's music, delivering it with princely abandon.

Praise cannot be high enough for Fabio Biondi and his Europa Galante, who play with such verve and such smooth tone that all issues about "early music performance" are moot. The horns, although they don't appear often (most arias are accompanied by strings in various formations), are played with great security and genuinely grand tone. The sonics are ideal, a slightly different acoustic for the recits aside. A bonus DVD featuring each of the singers performing an entire aria (and two for Bajazet) in rehearsal is great fun. What are you waiting for? [6/8/2005]
--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

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AllMusic Review by Uncle Dave Lewis [-]
Even hard-core Vivaldians will not be blamed for being a little mystified by the appearance on disc of the opera Bajazet, here recorded for the first time on Virgin Classics. A cursory glance at Antonio Vivaldi's worklist in Grove's will not make its pedigree readily apparent, but closer inspection reveals that it is given as an alternate title to Il Tamerlano, admittedly not as splashy a moniker as Bajazet. First presented during the carnival season in Verona in 1735, Bajazet is not all Vivaldi, being assembled by him, in part, to incorporate arias written by his contemporaries, as was the custom in this period. Bajazet does not easily betray its piecemeal manner of construction and, as an opera, is surprisingly unified in tone and style.
Fabio Biondi is the driving force behind this revival, and his period instrument group Europa Galante is fabulous throughout; the opening "Sinfonia" picks the listener up and will not let go. In the aspect of rhythm, Bajazet is one of Vivaldi's most interesting operas, and the mandolin-like strumming pattern underlaid to the aria "Del destin non dee lagnarsi," sung with character and aplomb by Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, has an almost rock & roll quality to it. Another outstanding highlight worth noting is mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux' dynamite performance of "Quel guerriero in campo armato," a Vivaldian gloss on an aria strongly associated with the famous castrato singer Farinelli. This is a rapid-fire, ridiculously ornate, and difficult aria where there is practically no place to breathe, being a thicket of breakneck sixteenth notes and treacherous leaps. The sudden, widespread acceptance of Vivaldi's previously little-known vocal music is great news for listeners, but is perhaps bad news for singers! Genaux is really on her game here, and additional evidence of that is supplied via the bonus DVD included with this set, featuring video clips of the six primary artists included taken during the recording sessions for Bajazet.
Bajazet has a strong cast, but there is one significantly weak link, notably mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca, who has the role of Andronico and, consequently, many pages of the music. Garanca's voice is pretty and well pitched, but she does not seem to have much grasp of the character and her singing is rather bland. At the very least, Bajazet is always representative of what this opera is supposed to sound like, which is what most listeners who are interested in obscure operas are usually looking for in such a set. That Bajazet is additionally excellent in other ways is a bonus that makes it more of an essential acquisition, and fans of Vivaldi's vocal music should not be without it.

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