# Boroque Opera Help



## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Hi All -

I'm just getting into Baroque opera. I love Baroque music but with opera I can stand that it's almost all arias and the fact that I delete recitativo (unless its accompagnato) makes the solo voice more evident. I bought _Rinaldo_, _Giulio Cesare_ and _Germanico in Germania_. Musically, they are all enjoyable, but good grief I cannot imagine sitting through 15 hours of arias in the theater with _Cesare_.

Needless to say, after all that pointless rambling, I'm looking for recommendations. I would love to find a Baroque opera with a larger number of ensembles but I doubt that is going to be possible as I gather that was the formula during the Baroque period.

The new Erato recording of Vivaldi's _Fernace_ is on the way.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Like you, I'm discovering Baroque opera this year.

Baroque operas are largely solo arias. There tends to be only one ensemble, usually in the third act, and little or no chorus (maybe at the end). One gets used to it, and the best singers are extraordinary. (Not sure when choruses and ensembles start to feature more - maybe with Gluck and Traetta?)

Get hold of Vinci's _Catone in Utica _, with the countertenors Fagioli and Cenčić (pron. "Sencheesh"). This was written for Rome; women weren't allowed to perform onstage, so it has four countertenors and two tenors. Has only one ensemble, a quintet, at the end, but the arias are magnificent.






Handel, I must confess, leaves me slightly cold; _Agrippina _is wonderful, something of a throwback to Monteverdi's _Poppea_, but _Rinaldo_ (Jacobs) and _Giulio Cesare_ (both Glyndebourne, w. Janet Baker; Met, w. David Daniels & Natalie Dessay) don't work for me. Many of the individual arias are amazing, but the stories didn't hold my attention. (_Serse _with Fagioli might be better.)

I prefer Vivaldi, whose operas are tighter and swifter. His early operas like _L'incoronazione di Dario_ and _La verità in cimento_ have more ensembles, and "feel" almost proto-Rossinian.

I really recommend his _Orlando Furioso_:





It's another of the Ariosto operas, but for its period, it's surprisingly intense.

You could also seek out Keiser's _Croesus_. Tim Albery (_Guardian_, 2007) was "taken aback by its exuberant lyricism. Number followed number in apparently chaotic abundance: poignant laments, comic diatribes, ecstatic love songs, militaristic tirades. Arias, duets, quartets, choruses, orchestral interludes, some lasting as much as five or six minutes like the traditional Handel aria with its da capo repeat, others only 90 seconds, over before you know it. But most of them about three minutes long, just like pop songs, many of them of astounding beauty. There was a sense of profusion, of an incredibly generous, almost out-of-control fertility, of a Romantic spirit not to be hemmed in by classical restraint."

The early 18th century really seems one of Italian opera's golden ages. It also puts Rossini more in perspective; as well as being the start of Italy's second golden age (bel canto), he's also a continuation of the 18th century tradition.


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Thank you for your kind reply. I actually have _Croesus_. I bought Jacobs recording when it was released. I just dug it out of storage. I remember it fondly. Will check out Vivaldi.

Thank you.


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> I prefer Vivaldi.


I am so screwed. I just got Farnace in the mail today and I bought Ercole yesterday. I am in love with Vivaldi. This means I'm going to spend so much money on his operas.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

gellio said:


> I am so screwed. I just got Farnace in the mail today and I bought Ercole yesterday. I am in love with Vivaldi. This means I'm going to spend so much money on his operas.


There are a number of full-length Baroque Operas on YouTube to hear what you might want to buy and spend your fortune on. This one gets off to a rough start but then gets better and the staging is beautiful. I like watching opera as much as hearing it. I want the whole hog. Oink!


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Bought Vivaldi's _Orlando furioso_ last night. All so good, but I am in love with _Germanico in Germania_.


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