Cieco Amor – Opera arias written for Giuseppe Maria Boschi
Sergio Foresti (baritone)
Abchordis Ensemble/Andrea Buccarella
rec. 8-12 October 2018, Catholic Church Sacré-Coeur, Basel, Switzerland
CHALLENGE CLASSICS CC72875 [71:07]
This is a recent addition to the burgeoning discography profiling a particular singer of the past through the music written for them. Many of the singers now principally remembered for having worked with Handel have been the subject of such recitals. Standing somewhat in the shadow of the more preening sopranos and castratos of that era, bass-baritones are rather overlooked as seemingly inhabiting a restricted range of roles, comprising father, authoritarian, or outright tyrannical figures on the comparatively infrequent occasions they were employed in Baroque opera. This disc reveals that Giuseppe Boschi enjoyed a very widespread career, both in terms of working in many places and with various composers, and also in creating a wide diversity of roles.
Boschi began his musical career in Venice, and went on to sing in 83 operas between 1703 and 1729, throughout Italy, as well as in Vienna, Dresden, and London, according to Giovanni Battista Graziadio’s detailed liner notes for this disc. It was in Venice, in the first decade of the 18th century, that he first encountered the young Handel, who wrote the part of Pallante in Agrippina for him. He followed that composer to London and sang at the premiere of Rinaldo, before loyally working with him again for most of the 1720s, creating the bass roles in all of Handel’s operas in that period.
Sergio Foresti highlights the versatility both of Boschi’s musicianship and his own technique, through this selection of operatic arias by ten composers altogether. In general, he sings with considerable gravitas in the big, heroic numbers which require a bold production of sound, as in ‘Sibilar gli angui d’Aletto’ from Rinaldo which opens the sequence, and Bononcini’s ‘Rimbomba la tromba’, both of which do indeed feature trumpets and timpani. Likewise, although ‘Su fieri guerrieri’ from Ariosti’s Vespasiano omits any brass instruments, it encompasses a similarly bold musical character as ‘The trumpet shall sound’ from Messiah.
In other numbers, Foresti leavens his typical vocal weight with more agility where required, in order to bring more movement or ebullience to the music, for instance in ‘Timor e speme’ from Giovanni Bononcini’s Griselda, or amidst the teeming, bustling strings of Porpora’s ‘Va’ dal furor portata’ from Ezio. The wonderful aria ‘Mira l’onda furibonda’ from Fiorè’s little-known Sesostri, re d’Egitto demonstrates a more subtle, nuanced way of doing heroics.
The title aria of this disc, ‘Cieco amor’ from Bononcini’s Etearco, shows that Foresti can also sustain a more inward, lyrical line in that aria of tragic, Handelian depth, as also in the mellower tone of Heinichen’s ‘Vostre imagini’ from Flavio Crispo, which has the air of a solo from a Bach Passion. It seems surprising, therefore, that there are occasional passages where his delivery is a touch effortful, such as in ‘Gelido in ogni vena’ from Handel’s Siroe.
Such flaws are minor, however, and can almost be overlooked in view of the responsive support of the instrumentalists of the Abchordis Ensemble, especially on the part of the ever-present strings, whether sorrowful or joyful. The contributions from Giuseppe Frau and Davide Giacuzzo on trumpets are impressive – setting aside a few understandably inexact notes in the stratospheric roulades of ‘Rimbomba la tromba’ – and there are characterful appearances from the bassoon, courtesy of Giovanni Battista Graziadio, in the Orlandini aria and ‘Volate piu dei venti’ from Handel’s Muzio Scevola.
Overall, this release provides a valuable insight into the abilities of, respectively, a historic and a contemporary singer. But it also reminds us both that the sopranos and castratos of the Baroque stage did not always have the best tunes – it was often the basses who were the most devilish characters after all – and also that there are still treasures aplenty to be mined from the huge operatic store of that period.
Curtis Rogers
Contents
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
Sibilar gli angui d’Aletto (from Rinaldo)
Johann David HEINICHEN (1683-1729)
Servi, il bagno chiudete – Vostre imagini (from Flavio Crispo)
Giovanni BONONCINI (1670-1747)
Timor e speme (from Griselda)
Antonio LOTTI (1667-1740)
Del minacciar del vento (from Teofane)
Eterni Dei (from Il vincitor generoso)
Attilio ARIOSTI (1666-1729)
Quella calma che a noi viene (from Coriolano)
Antonio Maria BONONCINI (1677-1726)
Torna Demetrio al figlio – Rimbomba la tromba (from La presa di Tebe)
Nicola PORPORA (1686-1768)
Ah, perfida! Conosco che vuoi – Va’ dal furor portata (from Ezio)
George Frideric HANDEL
Ove son? Che m’avvenne? – Gelido in ogni vena (from Siroe)
Attilio ARIOSTI
Su fieri guerrieri (from Vespasiano)
Antonio LOTTI
Bella non piangere (from Polidoro)
Giuseppe Maria ORLANDINI (1676-1760)
So ben che nel tuo petto (from Arsace)
George Frideric HANDEL
Sulla riva del Tebro in men d’un’ora – Volate piu dei venti (from Muzio Scevola)
Andrew Stefano FIORÈ (1686-1732)
Mira l’onda furibonda (from Sesostri Re d’Egitto)
Antonio CALDARA (1670-1736)
Guerrieri invitti – Al suon delle Trombe (from L’inimoco generoso)
