Arias for Farinelli

Track Listings

1. Orfeo (Nicola Antonio Porpora): "Dall'amor piy sventurato"

2. Idaspe (Riccardo Broschi): "Ombra fedele anch'io"

3. Idaspe: "Qual guerriero in campo armato"

4. Adriano in Siria (Geminiano Giacomelli): "Mancare Dio mi sento"

5. Concerto a 4 in C minor (Baldassare Galuppi): Grave

6. Allegro

7. Andante

8. Polifemo (Nicola Antonio Porpora): "Oh volesser gli Dei... Dolci freschi aurette"

9. Artaserse (Johann Adolf Hasse [added aria]): "Or la nube procellosa"

10. Artaserse: "Per questo dolce amplesso"

11. Merope (Geminiano Giacomelli): "Quell'usignolo"

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
"Farinelli" was the stage name for the greatest castrato--and arguably the greatest singer--of his era, the 1720s and '30s (he inspired the film of the same name ). His range was enormous--three octaves, by some reports--with a deep, resonant chest voice that was perfectly wedded to strong, sweet high notes. His breath control seemed superhuman, his ability to execute florid runs at high speeds astounded the audience, and he could leap from one octave to another as naturally and easily as most people could speak.

On this CD, the fine countertenor-conductor-musicologist Rene Jacobs leads a historically correct band in eight (almost forgotten) virtuoso arias Farinelli was famous for, and the Alaskan mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux sings them stupendously. Her voice is warm and rich, and her ability to keep rhythmically and tonally accurate while carrying out almost impossible, dozens-of-notes-per-minute roulades will take your breath away. She's just as impressive in the gentler, long-breathed arias. If you've ever admired Marilyn Horne, Cecilia Bartoli, Joan Sutherland, and other bel canto superstars, this disc is perfect for you. Thrilling! --Robert Levine

Arias for Farinelli, Music, Nicola Antonio Porpora, Riccardo Broschi, Geminiano Giacomelli, Baldassare Galuppi, Johann Adolf Hasse, Vivica Genaux, Rene Jacobs, Akademie fur alte Musik Berlin, Classical, Classical Artists, Classical Music, Classical Vocals, German/Austrian Classical Period Opera, Italian Classical Period Opera, Miscellaneous Music, Opera, Vocal, Vocal Music

Arias for Farinelli
Average customer rating:

Beautiful technique, coupled with Baroque sensitivity...

very interesting work!

Pleasant music & competent, if unexciting, renditions

Finally these arias sung in a way that can move the heart!

The most satisfying CD purchase I think I've ever made

Arias for Farinelli

Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Farinelli

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Farinelli

Vivica Genaux - Handel/Hasse: Opera Arias

ASIN: B0000646XA
Release Date: 2002-09-10

Tracks:

Orfeo (Nicola Antonio Porpora): "Dall'amor piy sventurato"
Idaspe (Riccardo Broschi): "Ombra fedele anch'io"
Idaspe: "Qual guerriero in campo armato"
Adriano in Siria (Geminiano Giacomelli): "Mancare Dio mi sento"
Concerto a 4 in C minor (Baldassare Galuppi): Grave
Allegro
Andante
Polifemo (Nicola Antonio Porpora): "Oh volesser gli Dei... Dolci freschi aurette"
Artaserse (Johann Adolf Hasse [added aria]): "Or la nube procellosa"
Artaserse: "Per questo dolce amplesso"
Merope (Geminiano Giacomelli): "Quell'usignolo"

Amazon.com

"Farinelli" was the stage name for the greatest castrato--and arguably the greatest singer--of his era, the 1720s and '30s (he inspired the film of the same name ). His range was enormous--three octaves, by some reports--with a deep, resonant chest voice that was perfectly wedded to strong, sweet high notes. His breath control seemed superhuman, his ability to execute florid runs at high speeds astounded the audience, and he could leap from one octave to another as naturally and easily as most people could speak.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful technique, coupled with Baroque sensitivity..........2005-11-05

Being a counter tenor myself, I am often quite critical and picky with my Baroque recordings... counter tenors are never quite good enough for my tastes, and women are never quite androgynous enough for my tastes either. What can I say? I'm never satisfied... until now. Vivica Genaux has made such a beautiful recording, and such a moving tribute to one of history's greatest musical celebrities. Her tone is pure and androgynous enough to conjure our imaginations' best thoughts of what the great castrati may have sounded like, and yet there is still a warmth and spin in her voice. The coloratura is stunning... just as agile and articulated as Bartoli, but without the awkward and tense stoppage between notes. Genaux sings this music both as if she had worked on it since birth and yet as if it were second nature! Fabulous... this album is shaping up to be my very favourite baroque recording!

very interesting work!.......2005-08-21

Vivica Genaux is really great and Rene Jacobs too!!!!
Some compositions by Riccardo Broschi (Farinelli's Brother) are not that great, but the general philosophy of work, and the interpretation of Vivica are amazing.
Great recording to have if you like real Baroque stuff!

Pleasant music & competent, if unexciting, renditions.......2003-10-22

Vindication for countertenor haters? - made possible by a former countertenor!
I won't use CAPITAL LETTERS to make any point about this recording but I will say this much first. Countertenors sang in oratorios and in sacred music. Frequently Handel borrowed music from opera to be sung by countertenors in these works. Look at the role of David in Handel's 'Saul' - written for an excellent countertenor.

British singers (countertenors, basses, sopranos, contraltos, and tenors) were not trained to sing opera in Handel's time. Handel almost always used Italians - castrati or Italian women, if a castrato fell ill.

Countertenors then were not trained to sing Italian opera. But this is not the case any more and many countertenors sing this music very well and very convincingly. End of rave.

So what's this disc like? It is okay and the music is nice. Vivica Genaux has a voice that is quite nice and she has a flexible instrument. However, she uses too much vibrato and does not blend well with period instruments. Overall, this is a fairly ordinary recording of an undoubtedly talented modern mezzo, but it isn't anything out of the ordinary. The timbre of Genaux is decidedly female and she sounds a lot like other mezzos I've heard. Its a nice recording but it isn't amazing or anything like that!

I'll stick with David Daniels, Andreas Scholl, Daniel Taylor, Lawrence Zazzo & co.

Finally these arias sung in a way that can move the heart!.......2003-06-20

I was quite excited to hear this CD when I saw it. I have listened to a number of "Farinelli Arias" disks, and to tell the truth really saw no merit in the music at all, at least how it was performed. However, I have studied this music for decades, and having many fine transcriptions of Farinelli's embellishments, I have always wondered what these arias would sound like when sung well. It was a revelation.

I would suggest that everyone who listens to this CD begin by reading the very long, but very informative, explanations of the Castrato voice, and of Farinelli himself. There is a wealth of information, including how voices were trained, and what voices were used to trade off when a castrato soprano was not available. COUNTERTENORS were NEVER used. They existed, but they simply didn't have the sound that compared. The usual choice for composers was a FEMALE CONTRALTO with a good upper range. This upper range was not like we think of high notes today. In fact, no singer until the end of the 1880's had high notes like we are used to today. Their upper notes were very penetrating, but not super loud. The strength of the voice was its chest and lower notes. Most Castrati sang well, even to very strong powerful notes over an octave below middle C, and were still called "sopranos."

Looking at the scores of these pieces, you will not find one high note written there, and those that do venture above the staff are very quickly sung. However, most all of the pieces venture below the staff, and often start a phrase as low as the A below middle C. If one looks at Farinelli's own embellishments, one hardly ever sees him venturing above a high A and then very quickly. In his youth he may have had a High F but he never would have used it the way we expect singers like Joan Sutherland to sing it.

So, if we can just get over a few things we have been conditioned to think (which are completely wrong) that the countertenor voice has any resemblance to the Castrato (which it doesn't; composers of the period have proven through their choices a contralto or dark mezzo represented far more accurately the castrato voice), that voices sang with no vibrato (they did, and it gave warmth to the music, that is why eventually string players learned to use a vibrato, we have used instrumental technique, which were decades behind vocal technique, to decide how vocalist sang, organs as early as 11 hundred were built with a "la Voce" stop, which actually played two notes back and forth to immitate a vibrato, so obviously the voice did vibrate), and that the castrato has some super human capacity for volume (their breathing and focus training was unique to them, and often not taught to other singers of their day; women worse corsets and so their breathing was shallow, but what they were trained to do is commonly done today for most singers, so their volume would have compared to our more modern sound, only their high notes would not have been anywhere as loud as we are used to hearing).

If we are willing to learn from facts, then we will be ready to listen to this performance. What we hear is a wonderful singer doing a wonderful job with music that is very difficult to sing. It would have been nicer if her voice was more powerful in the lower reaches, for much of the music is quite low. Most of her embellishments are authentic to the times, but only one piece actually uses all the embellishments that were used by Farinelli himself, and that is the last piece, "Quelle'Usignolo." This disk was a really refreshing experience. It was wonderful to finally hear the words when the vocal line was lower, rather than the nasal twang the countertenors often bring to it, and nice to hear upper notes that actually came forth easily. It was nice to hear warmth to a voice singing this music, rather than something akin to scratching ones fingernails down the blackboard. It was nice to hear some "presence" some "personality" in the music, which more often than not it never has. As Vivica Genaux's voice grows and darkens, if she never loses her wonderful agility, then she truly will give this music the life it desperately needs to take it out of the frozen museum piece prison it has been relegated to in the more "authentic recordings" we are often subjected to.

The most satisfying CD purchase I think I've ever made.......2003-02-04

While people informed in music history and historical performance debate the merrits of whether the voice is authentic, or whether its qualities are the match of legends like Marilyn Horne, the fact remains for me that I have never been so satisfied with a baroque music CD purchase. The quality of the music is incredible, all these composers were contemporaries and even rivals of Handel, yet lost to history as vocal composers until recently. The players and conductor bring life to the scores with sensitive, imaginitive, and highly sophisticated playing. I enjoyed every aspect of the recording, including the instrumental tracks. They are lively and interesting, yet also historically informed, and have a rightness to the sound that is lacking in a lot of the less enthusiastic recorded performances.

The singer, Genaux, possesses a voice surprisingly similar in timbres to the electronically blended sound on the Farinelli soundtrack. While a little grainy or edgy in parts of her range, it has the burnished warm sounds that float and are easy throughout much of the very difficult tessitura. These is a terrific activity or direction in all the coloratura that is never rushed or pushed in tempo, but keeps moving forward and gives shapes to the very long florid lines. The long stretches of the cantabile arias are wrapped in velvet and have several heart-stopping moments.

It is not hard to understand why these arias were the purview of one of the greatest singers of a bygone age, what is hard to understand is why this music has been missing from the repertoire for so long. Also, when considering the voice of the castrato, it is important to remember that they were boy sopranos originally, whose mutilation maintained their pre-pubecent vocal condition of "falsetto". However, the real facility of their voices came from very long years of incredibly rigorous vocal and musical training, castrati often were already a part of the conservatorios before their mutilation. This training cultivates the head voice in ways that only few of the modern day countertenors have achieved. It is wrong to think that the sound is vastly different from countertenors, and that the clarity of the female voice is the only comparison.

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1. Orfeo (Nicola Antonio Porpora): "Dall'amor piy sventurato"
2. Idaspe (Riccardo Broschi): "Ombra fedele anch'io"
3. Idaspe: "Qual guerriero in campo armato"
4. Adriano in Siria (Geminiano Giacomelli): "Mancare Dio mi sento"
5. Concerto a 4 in C minor (Baldassare Galuppi): Grave
6. Allegro
7. Andante
8. Polifemo (Nicola Antonio Porpora): "Oh volesser gli Dei... Dolci freschi aurette"
9. Artaserse (Johann Adolf Hasse [added aria]): "Or la nube procellosa"
10. Artaserse: "Per questo dolce amplesso"
11. Merope (Geminiano Giacomelli): "Quell'usignolo"