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If you're already familiar with L'Orfeo, this unique performance is a
must. It includes both versions of Orfeo's centerpiece aria "Possente spirito"--a rarely performed version with no written embellishment--as well as the now-familiar ornate setting; each verse is sung first in simple form, then in its elaborate restatement. Also, the original 1607 production ended with Orfeo's murder by the Bacchantes. Only the libretto of this scene survives--the spoken performance it gets here is terrifying. (Orfeo and Apollo ascend to heaven afterward.) This album does have two serious weaknesses: disastrously listless choruses and dry, unflattering recorded sound. Still, there's lively instrumental and continuo playing and a serviceable cast. This flawed-but- fascinating release is well worth the budget price. (If you're new to L'Orfeo, try John Eliot Gardiner on DG.)
--Matthew Westphal
Product Description
Claudio Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo (Orpheus) holds a special position in operatic literature as the earliest such composition to have regained a place in current operatic repertoire. Although it was not the first opera, it may be accounted the first opera that, in revival, has held its own, including, as it does, compelling music by the great master of the early Italian Baroque, Monteverdi, a pioneer of the new music of the period, in a treatment of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, a demonstration itself of the power of music.
