VIVALDI Opera Arias and Sinfonias

Gelosia, tu gia rendi I'alma mia; L'ombre, l'aure (with Liliana Mazzarri, soprano) (Ottone in Villa);
Se mai senti spirati; Se in campo armato (Catone in Utica);
Non mi lusinga vans speranza (L'incoronazione di Dario);
Ferma Teodosio (L'Atenaide);
Ombre vane; Agitate da due venti (Griselda);
Non ti lusinghi, la crudeltade (Tito Manlio);
Sinfonias from Tameriano [Il Bajazet], Griselda, Ottone in Utica


EMMA KIRKBY soprano, KATHARINA ARFKEN oboe, THE BRANDENBURG CONSORT / ROY GOODMAN

Helios CDH55279

If you have found the energetic, high-powered virtuosity of a certain popular Italian singer in this repertoire resistible, do take the opportunity to snap up this inexpensive Helios re-release from Emma Kirkby in her 1994 prime.

There is a lightness and vivacity which charms throughout, and the support by Roy Goodman and his consort is comparable, with a superb oboist in obbligato partnership. Goodman was a notable boy soprano (a famous recording of Allegri's Miserere conducted by David Willcocks) and I last came across him in Blackheath Halls in charge of the European Baroque Orchestra.

There is so much gold to find in Hyperion's back catalogue and no one would regret acquiring this one. All the texts of the arias are given in Italian and English.

Peter Grahame Woolf