Customer Reviews

Vivica Genaux - Arias for Farinelli

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

Whatever the problems with the album, it is a fantastic performance, more perfect than any other that I for one have ever heard, it still can be ranked with a landmark recording, one that can be held up with those of the legends.

While it's easy to go on and on when a performance has problems, praising a perfect one runs the risk of sounding too cloying; yet, Vivica Genaux has given us just that - a perfect performance. These arias were originally written for Farinelli, greatest of the castrati. As such performers are no longer among us, some would say we'll never know what Farinelli sounded like. Well, who cares - we have Vivica Genaux. This must be the most pyrotechnic vocal recording ever made - Genaux goes through these arias seemingly without breathing and without a misstep or a bad note. Faultless, flawless, complete perfection...while in the future other mezzos may record these pieces, I cannot imagine anyone will ever do them better. We can only wish her a long career, though that she will ever top this performance seems quite impossible to believe. Genaux's technique is absolutely perfect, and her voice divine. I, for one, feel blessed to be alive not only when Vivica Genaux performs, but when those performances are so easily available. I wait - impatiently - for her next album, and have already ordered her previous ones.

No small credit should be given also to Rene Jacobs and the wonderful musicians of the Akadamie fur Alte Musik Berlin. Indeed, they are the instrumental equals of both Genaux's voice and her technique.

I have read other reviewers who have said that Rene Jacobs waited for twenty years to find someone with a voice to handle these arias, and that the world waited two hundred and twenty - since Farinell's death. Well, the wait is over, and we are the lucky ones!

Simply put, if I were stranded on the proverbial desert island, and could only take, say, five CDs, please believe this would be one.

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.

An absolutely hair raising experience. Where has Vivica Genaux been hiding all these years? Her technique is beyond reproach and the ornamentation will take your breath away. As a baroque opera lover, I more than welcome this fantastic album. Those weaned on Cecilia's pyrotechnics (I love her, too) will find a different, yet equally thrilling alternative in Ms. Genaux. I eagerly await her "Rinaldo," also with Rene Jacobs, which is to be released later this year by Harmonia Mundi.

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!

This album will put a big Genaux star on the map. Sure she is a woman and we will never know what the real Ferinelli sounded like. But this is just plain great singing and is well recorded. Great instrumentalist. I bought this on a whim and have played it every day for more than a week. I simply cannot get enough. I usually cannot take aria albums for more than a cut or two and then the CD sits on the shelf. This one is fabulous!

I bought this on a whim and have not regretted it one bit. Of course this is a woman and Farinelli probably sounded quite different. But as a CD this is well recorded and very well sung. I would give additional credit to the organizers for not trying to push this into a castrato sound (whatever that sound may be). It works so well on its own. The sound quality is about an 8.5 of ten. Very good. This is also a good choice for those just starting out collecting classical voice. The songs are pleasant and not repetitive.

This new CD has beautiful music which reminds me of Handel and Vivaldi. Vivica Genaux has a beautiful mezzo-soprano voice which she sound like Marilyn Horne. She is one of the most beautiful opera singers in the world today. Ladies and gentlemen, you should get this CD because the singing, the sound, and the music is superb and amazing. God bless Vivica Genaux!!
Amen!!!

This is a wonderful CD. There are two very different levels at which this works: (1) We get a sense of the repertoire of the great castrato singer, Farinelli; (2) We can appreciate the vocal talents of the mezzo soprano Vivica Genaux as she sings arias actually sung by Farinelli. In that sense, a double treat for the listener. It must be said that the skills of Farinelli, from the works here, were extraordinary. The agility and breath control called for in these works is striking.

Genaux has a name that seems French, but she was born in Alaska. An examination of some of the "cuts" on this CD might be useful.

"Dell'amor piu sventurato" is from Porpora's "Orfeo." This is a richly ornamented and vocally extremely challenging work. Genaux shows great agility, fine breath control, and a rich, lustrous mezzo voice. Her florid singing is very well done. Her trills are not great, but they are okay--and they are abundant. She demonstrates what I would call stunning technique in a treacherous and difficult piece.

Then, there is "Or la nobbe procellosa," from Hassa's "Artaserse." She handles this demanding piece with aplomb. Just keeping up with the pace and, at the same time, showing off appropriate ornamentation is a challenge, but she remains musical throughout.

Maybe the most interesting piece, though, is "Quell'usignolo," from Giacomelli's "Merope." Why? In this case, Genaux actually sings Farinelli's version, with his own ornamentation. The piece begins slowly (with vocal pyrotechnics to follow). Then, the pace picks up. This is another challenging piece, with trills and much florid singing called for. She displays excellent breath control and a wonderfully rich mezzo voice. The latter part of this work is dazzling in terms of the demands on the singer (one almost wishes to be able to hear Farinelli actually singing this). Genaux seems to me to be up to those demands. Toward the end, her breath control in extremely demanding passages is extraordinary.

This is a wonderful CD in providing (a) a glimpse of the art of Farinelli, after the intervening centuries and with no true comparator in the current era (countertenors, as other reviewers note, do not really give a sense of the castrato's voice; mezzos and contraltos do not have the same voice as a castrato) and (b) the art of Vivica Genaux. All the way around, this is a wonderful piece of art.

While praising Ms. Genaux, her status of a unique singer seems to be somewhat compromised by the CD title. We often see titles such as "'So and so' sings Bach" or "'So and so sings Haendel". Never we see "'So and so' sings Callas". Because Callas was also an interpreter, a peer. Of course, we've all heard Callas but not Farinelli. There are male sopranos with CD's titled alike, bearing reference to Farinelli. Just as Mr. Jacobs puts it on the inserts found in the CD: a certain public's interest in "hermaphroditic" voice.

Vivica Genaux is a very promising young American mezzo. She certainly has done justice to the very challenging Arias on this CD. And Mr. Rene Jacobs' style in Broque music is ever tasteful. However, this CD is not "perfect" as we all seem to think that Farinelli was. Ms. Genaux's low notes are not as warm as that of a contralto - according to legend, Farinelli had a vast range and many arias demanded a somewhat low tessutura in main, especially in the coloratura parts. Of course, Ms. Genaux's voice will darken with age.

Making a reference to another "Farinelli" recording, the the movie "Farinelli" soundtrack CD does not contain the aria "Qual guerriero in campo armato", and the singing lacks authenticity despite of its boasted "technology enhancement" - it might give the illusion of near perfection, when two singers' voices devide the upper and lower ranges of an aria; but the ease is simply artificial and upholds no intrinsinc values of the art of singing. Might be comparable to "Switch on Bach".