Music from the Venetian Opera House Sant'Angelo
Violinist Oliver Fourés has written the excellent liner notes for this album, of music programmed to bring us back to the heyday of one of Venice’s many opera houses. The program is given credit to him alongside Sophie de Bardonnèche, harpsichordist Justin Taylor, and Adèle Charvet, the featured soloist on the album. This opera house in particular—the Sant’Angelo—may be of interest to us with its connection to Vivaldi and his father. Giovanni Ristori also takes the authorship of many numbers here, a composer for me who was new, until I heard Le Consort bring him to life in one of their former albums of chamber music. According to Fouré’s notes, Ristori brought Italian opera to Dresden before landing it a place in concerts in Russia.
The album features a number of world premier recordings. Le Consort here is bolstered with quite an expanded crew: Théotime Langlois de Swarte is directing and joins 6 other violinists; they use three cellos and three theorbo players as well.
Altogether I think this is a great recital, capturing between all the represented composers a somewhat unified Venetian sound. Le Consort has transformed itself in the faster movements as stylish, quick, and dynamic as any number of Italian ensembles, not to mention the Ensemble Mattheus, whom I got to hear one year in Lyon. The fifth track, featuring the aria Sovvente il sole, offered for tongue-in-cheek reasons mentioned in the booklet notes, features a violin solo by TLdS. To my ears he’s not quite got the same chops in expressive potential as, say, an Enrico Onofri or Fabio Biondi. His sound is out in front and natural sounding; yet, honestly, I just wanted a little more juice out of his solos. His reprise is more tender, in the fifth track, but as a foil to the soloist, I felt it could have offered us more. We would have expected more if it’d been played by Vivaldi, no?
The one break we get from sung numbers is by way of a single adagio from a trio sonata by Chelleri, likewise, it provides no real improvisatory exploration despite the canvas the composer left for many opportunities for embellishing either one of the upper lines. It’s music well played and thirty years ago this would have been first rate stuff on any record; I just feel that in 2023? We should expect more period ensembles to embrace the performance practice we know existed whereby musicians added embellishments; and as for music that might have been performed in a theater? It seems natural to me that these two violinists are the two giving the duet, and should engage with the audience. I know there is a almost a tradition of keeping recordings somewhat “to the letter” as I’ve heard ensembles live do take far more risks than with their recordings. I think it’s a silly practice, at least for those of us who can’t get out as often to see musicians of this caliber.
But this small quibble is just that; small in importance compared to TLdS’s direction of the album, which I think was continually stellar, save for one aria, mentioned below.
As much as this album is about Venetian opera pieces at the height of Venice’s opera craze, it’s also about the soloist, Adèle Charvet. Given the background included in the text, it’s totally appropriate for a female to sing these arias. Charvet does, for me, offer too much vibration in her voice, which is satisfyingly not too quick; the timbre of her voice, especially in its lower register has a lightness to it that I think many mezzo’s or even altos lack. I’m torn because my preference is for less vibrato. What she does offer us, however, is a quality that I can say is operatic, the recording engineers have given us every sense that she projects well and is never in need of more power or intensity, she’s got a stage voice. Her upper register is quite beautiful as it takes on sharper clarity and thinness in timbre without losing intensity.
The high quality of this album fell apart for me in the twelfth track, featuring a Vivaldi aria from his RV 700, Ah non so, se quel ch’io sento. I felt the pacing here was too slow, allowing Charvet too much rope to extend herself with longer notes that turn ripe; there are some questions too around intonation that turn it sour. The following two arias from La Verita in Cimento RV 739 are a different matter; the first is a brisk number that showcases the best from this soloist and the ensemble; the pacing in the slower second number feels well-paced and Charvet feels and sounds more confident. Compare this with the third track, featuring Ristori’s number from his opera Cleonice. Charvet excels in this world, without the call for intensity.
There’s an overabundance of confidence in Vivaldi’s number from L’Incoronazione di Dario RV 719; its rhythm is tight, the recorder solo is lacking nothing, the strummed guitar (theorbo?), percussion, and the violin solo (especially when it’s doubling the voice) are all superb. This is a track you’ll play on repeat, I am sure. It’d make a wonderful encore piece.
The last piece, Porta’s Patrona revertia is so different that it’s an odd ending to the album, although too, I think, it would make a good encore number. Here Charvet feels like she’s really comfortable with this piece; the way she dynamically shades her voice and treats certain words with small stretches of time exposes some of her strengths.
The recorded sound for this album is good; there’s a particular Italian villa in which many CDs like this one are made and for me it lacks ideal sound for a recording. This album was recorded in France and the sound is intimate and transparent. The voice above all else reveals the space’s acoustic nature and it is supportive in every way. For non-stage recordings of aria collections like this one, the recorded sound is excellent.
The translations for the Italian are provided in French and English but the layout is odd; the arias are presented on one page in Italian, and without labeling, they’re translated on the next. In a booklet this may work okay; but in a PDF booklet, having the text not all together is less than ideal.
My criticisms I think may distinguish this album from any competitors; however with a program like this featuring so many first-recorded pieces, it doesn’t really have any peers. Solid direction, a tight ensemble, and good recorded sound all speak for its strengths. Should another ensemble take up this same program they could only help to get so many elements right. Kudos to Fourès and the musicians represented on this album that did the research to unearth these pieces and bring context to them and the world of Venetian opera for us today.
