The Last Castrato
Arias for Velluti
Franco Fagioli (countertenor)
Chœur & Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal/Stefan Plewniak
rec. 2024, l’Opéra Royal de Versailles
Sung texts with French, English and German translations enclosed.
Reviewed as download
Château de Versailles CVS162 [65]
Giovanni Battista Velluti was born in 1780 in Montolmo (today Corridonia), a small town near Macerata, Italy. Little is known about his early training, but he seems to have debuted in 1797 as a soprano, but later became a mezzo-soprano. During a long career as singer he cooperated with many of the leading composers of the day: Gioachino Rossini, Giovanni Simone Mayr, Saverio Mercadante, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Giovanni Pacini. However, he was also sought-after by once very popular but today mostly forgotten masters like Francesco Morlacchi, Giuseppe Nicolini, Paolo Bonfichi and Stefano Pavesi. The composers he favoured most frequently were Nicolini (more than forty productions) and Morlacchi (thirteen). Velluti was also involved in many other activities: concertmaster, director, impresario, talent scout and singing teacher. Among his pupils can be mentioned greats like Giuditta Pasta, Maria Malibran and Adolphe Nourrit. That is only a small selection from his CV. In the comprehensive liner notes there is a more detailed portrait of Velluti, who died in January 1861, only a few days before his 81st birthday.
Franco Fagioli, who initiated this fascinating project to recreate Velluti’s repertoire, encountered numerous problems bringing it to a successful close. The musical sources were hard to locate and scattered in libraries and archives all over Europe, and Gianmarco Rossi and Giovanni Andrea Sechi spent almost three years on their research. We should be grateful for their industrious and time-consuming work; the end-result is truly illuminating.
Paolo Bonfichi’s Attila was a great success and Lotario’s cavatina Dolenti, e care immagini, heard here, became a favourite encore for Velluti and also for the great prima donna Giuditta Pasta and great number of other sopranos who included it in Il barbiere di Siviglia. It is preceded here by a long, dramatic orchestral intro, finely orchestrated and followed by a cabaletta full of virtuoso coloratura. The singing is nuanced and technically brilliant.
As mentioned earlier Velluti had a long and fruitful cooperation with Giuseppe Nicolini, whose many operas became very popular for a while. Interest soon waned, however, and Nicolini instead devoted himself to religious music. Today he is largely forgotten, but the music conservatory of Piacenza, where he was born and also died eighty years later, is named after him. Judging from the excerpts from three of his operas on this disc, a revival of some of his operas might be successful. They are both melodically and dramatically attractive, his orchestration is inventive, and his vocal writing is grateful for the singers. The arias from Balduino and Traiano in Dacia are memorable and especially the latter requires fluent florid singing, which of course fits Fagioli like a glove. The long scene from Carlo Magno is an even stronger advocate for his excellence as a dramatist. Here, orchestra, chorus and soloists intertwine to make a unit of power and intensity. A solo bassoon plays a central role in the orchestral accompaniment of the opening pages, whereupon the scene ends with a virtuoso rondo. The lasting impression is that we are listening to the work of an important opera composer.
The only composer here, besides Rossini, whose name hasn’t become completely forgotten, is Saverio Mercadante. Born in 1795 he belonged to the same generation as Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. When the precocious Rossini, only three years older, first heard him he said to the conservatory Director, Niccolo Zingarelli: “My compliments, Maestro – your young pupil Mercadante begins where we finish”. There is more than a grain of truth in this, since Mercadante, just as much as Donizetti, became a bridge to the young Verdi. He was a diligent producer of operas, fully comparable to Donizetti, and found great popularity. After his death in 1870, his works soon disappeared from the repertoire, but after the war some of them have been revived and also recorded. Il giuramento, premiered 1837 is possibly his best work and has been recorded at least four times. In 1979 it was set down with a starry cast including Agnes Baltsa, Mara Zampieri, Robert Kerns and Plácido Domingo. Andronico, from which we hear two excerpts, was much earlier. It premiered on 26 December 1821 at La Fenice in Venice and was his third premiere that year. The cavatina with chorus is lavishly adorned with elegant florid singing full of exquisite nuances, and the cabaletta is a fireworks of coloratura. The gran scena, the longest piece in this recital, opens with a long choral introduction, followed by the beautiful aria Soave imagine, so delicious! There is some dialogue, where Fagioli demonstrates his impressively elegant trill, and the scena is crowned by the coloratura-studded cabaletta Non tradirmi.
From Francesco Morlacchi’s Tebaldo e Isolina we are treated to a scene e romanza, accompanied by flute and harp – a celestial combination – and the romanza goes immediately to my list of favourite rarities.
Rossini’s Il vero omaggio, which concludes the programme, is not an opera but a cantata, although the recitative and aria have all the hallmarks of Rossini, including a short crescendo. As always, Franco Fagioli’s singing is masterly, and he is well supported by his co-soloists and the choral and orchestral forces from l’Opéra Royal de Versailles.
This is a valuable disc, both for the singing of Fagioli and for the rare repertoire that has been rescued for posterity after two centuries of neglect.
Göran Forsling
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
Paolo Bonfichi (1769-1840)
1 Attila, Scena e cavatina di Lotario: «Qual mi circonda e agghiaccia…
Dolenti e care immagini… Vedrai quest’anima», ed. G.A. Sechi 5’38
Giuseppe Nicolini (1762-1842)
2 Balduino, Recitativo e aria di Balduino:
«Ma i figli miei… Vederla dolente», ed. G.A. Sechi 2‘46
3 Traiano in Dacia, Aria di Decebalo: «Ah se mi lasci o cara», ed. G.A. Sechi 5‘19
4 Carlo Magno, Scena e rondo di Vitekindo: «Ecco o numi compiuto…
Ah quando cesserà… Lo sdegno io non pavento», ed. G.A. Sechi 13‘11
Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870)
5 Andronico, Cavatina di Andronico: «Dove m’aggiro… Era felice un dì…
Sì bel contento in giubilo», ed. G. Rossi 8’10
6 Andronico, Gran scena di Andronico: «Di grida insolite… O solinghe dimore…
Soave immagine… Non tradirmi o bella speme», ed. G. Rossi 16’04
Francesco Morlacchi (1784-1841)
7 Tebaldo e Isolina, Scene e romanza di Tebaldo: «Notte tremenda…
Caro suono lusinghier», ed. G.A. Sechi 7’39
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
8 Il vero omaggio, «Al conforto inaspettato» 6’39
Other soloists: Sarah Charles (soprano)(4), Léo Reymann (tenor)(4, 6) and Jérémie Delvert (bass)(6)
