Customer Reviews

Hasse: Marc' Antonio e Cleopatra

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This recording would deserve five or even six stars because of the amazing voices of the singers, both very impassioned and cut out for their roles (the fact that Cleopatra's part was written for no less than Farinelli speaks volumes about its amazing expressiveness) and the extraordinary strength and impulse of Dirst's direction of the very refined players of Ars Lyrica Houston (on original instruments): vivid particulars are spotlighted as well as the perfect dramatic consistency of the whole work. There's only one reason why I chose to give four stars instead. Quoting from the booklet: "Hasse's score makes vivid the complex emotions of his title characters in eight arias, two duets, and some highly expressive recitative; the whole is introduced by a Sinfonia in two movements. Though the work is scored for just strings and continuo, this recording adds various woodwinds (oboes, recorders, flute and bassoon), rendering even more colorful Hasse's imaginative and supple ideas." I don't know: this habit may even spring from a contemporary practise with woodwinds enhancing the string line but I'm not sure "Hasse's imaginative and supple ideas" need that. I would have liked to listen to the original color of the orchestra: Baroque string orchestras can be so varied and apt to represent each and every feeling ("affetti") of the text, all the more so if the composer himself wanted it to be so!
As for the music itself, this 'serenata' is a real treat: of course everyone cannot be such a master as Handel was, along with a very few other composers of his age, in catching in recitatives the real accents and inflections of spoken Italian (you can't realize that if you're not Italian, or at least speak Italian very well!)---Hasse seems to cope well with the task (he'd only lived in Italy for five years when he wrote Marcantonio e Cleopatra), even though sometimes the recitatives sound somewhat strange, with high notes out of place, for instance, or words stressed that had better not be and so on (this is what I feel anyway: maybe on a second and third hearing I will feel different). Arias and duets give us an uninterrupted series of little masterpieces, and the singers Ava Pine as Cleopatra and Jamie Barton as Antonio do really make them sound exactly as they should. Bravissime.
Here's hoping Ars Lyrica Houston will go on producing and recording such masterpieces from the early XVIIth century repertoire---it's about time we knew and loved them through such first class renditions.

Everything about this Grammy-nominated disc is excellent. Haasse's composition is well overdue for notice. The instrumentalists are immaculate. But best of all are the superb performances by the soprano Ava Pine and the up-and-coming star mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton. Their vocals are nothing short of brilliant.

... international superstar, perhaps the most acclaimed opera composer of his generation with hugely successful productions of his works under his own direction in Hamburg, Naples, Florence, Dresden, Turin, Rome, Bayreuth, Warsaw, Vienna, and Venice, the closest collaborator of the supreme librettist Metastasio, the Kapellmeister and Überkapellmeister of the court in Dresden from 1730 to 1763, Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) was forgotten even before his last notes were dry on the page and has still not regained his proper place in the pantheon of Baroque composers. Possibly the route of his musical career - along the axis of cultural travel over the Brenner Pass, east of the Alps, through Dresden rather than Paris - explains his obscurity in Western Europe and North America. Certainly the decline of his reputation began with the "reforms" championed by Christoph Willibald Gluck; Hasse was the epitome of the florid musical artifice that Gluck denounced. In any case, as the wheel turns, Hasse is finally being getting his due ... in Houston, Texas!

Ars Lyrica Houston was founded in 1998 by harpsichordist Matthew Dirst, who conducts this performance of Hasse's serenata "Marc Antonio e Cleopatra", premiered in Naples in 1725 at the beginning of the composer's rise to fame. The ensemble's first CD, of works by Alessandro Scarlatti, was superb - I reviewed it last year - and this second release is even better, the only recording of 2010 by an American ensemble nominated for major awards. It's a 'period instrument' ensemble, of course, employing historical tunings and pitch. This recording features six violins, viola, cello, violone, harpsichord, theorbo/guitar (played very tastefully by Richard Savino), oboe, traverso, and bassoon. Hasse's manuscript doesn't specify the wind instruments, but the bassoon playing here, by Benjamin Kamins, is absolutely enchanting; I'd wager Hasse would be thrilled. At the historical premiere in Naples, the role of Antonio was sung by popular contralto Vittoria Tesi, while Cleopatra was sung by the castrato superstar Farinelli ... and there's a gender-bender worthy of the Arcadian Academy! Both roles are sung by women on this CD: soprano Ava Pine as Cleopatra and mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Anthony. Both are excellent, though Barton brings more subtlety to her vocal technique. Here's a curious sort of compliment: Barton sounds, at times, very much like a topnotch countertenor, not just in bringing a 'masculine' affect to her role as Marc Anthony but also in wielding her vocal technique with the straight timbre that makes countertenors distinct. I could easily have been fooled, given her first name, if her picture weren't included in the notes.

The 'serenata' as a genre lies between oratorio and full-length opera. Stand-and-sing concert performances would have been the norm, though such performances might have included dramatic gestures and painted backdrops. Nothing is lost, therefore, in encountering this work on a CD rather than as a filmed staging. The full libretto is included, with translation to English. The first act depicts the 'tragic' moment, after the Battle of Actium, when Anthony and Cleopatra acknowledge their desperate situation and pledge each other both love and courage. The second act evolves from the lovers' acceptance of impending death to a prophesy of the future greatness of the Roman Empire, even without Anthony at its head, and of the eventual continuation of that greatness under the Austrian Habsburgs! Such glorious music for such sycophancy was not uncommon in Baroque Europe.

But the music really is glorious. Listen carefully to the opening 'sinfonia.' Sound familiar? Good enough to be 'recycled' - though simplified - by another Sassone? The instrumental writing throughout this serenata is effortlessly complex and buoyant, not just a tapestry backdrop for the arias. Nothing the reformer Gluck ever composed had this sort of orchestral energy and expressive density. Only a small fraction of Hasse's music has been recorded so far, but of what I've heard, this is the most outstanding example and the most persuasive performance.

This piece was new to me, as it will be to most people. After my first listen, I was stunned to find it isn't more commonly performed.

Of course, this performance has both sparkle and depth, so the artistry brings out the best in the composition. The voices are elegant, yet passionate. The conducting is intellectually precise, but tender and fluid as well. The playing is nimble, but not too airy.

Simply put: This is smart AND thrilling.

No wonder it surprised everyone with a Grammy nomination. This recording brings a piece from rarity to essential.

Hasse's work--imagining the final hours of the Roman general and the Egyptian queen--is neither an opera nor an oratorio (there's no chorus), but offers interesting, if not unforgettable, music. Surprisingly, though the piece runs nearly 90 minutes, the singers are only heard together twice. (Those duets are worth waiting for.) Director Matthew Dirst has tinkered with the scoring to add woodwinds for this first complete recording, but only the most rabid purist will object when his orchestra plays as well as any period band out there. Of course, the real attraction of this set is the soloists, neither of whom I'd heard before. The way they deliver the goods here, I don't think it's going too far to predict soprano Ava Pine and mezzo Jamie Barton will be heard again and again in years to come. Good sound, with only the occasional pitch issue betraying its live origin; nice booklet with texts.

Amazing voices doing amazing things. I know Jamie and was not at all surprised. Ava Pine was new to me, but the two are equally paired for this production. Matthew Dirst obviously knows what he's doing and doing it with perfection. More!

This is the only American recording nominated for the 2011 Grammy for "Best Opera Recording." The competition is pretty fierce....amazing company for Ars Lyrica to be in. Congratulations.