Antonio VIVALDI (1678 – 1741) Griselda, RV 718 Opera in three acts

 

Griselda: Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto)  

Costanza: Veronica Cangemi (soprano)

Ottone: Simone Kermes (soprano)

Roberto: Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor)

Gualtiero: Stefano Ferrari (tenor)

Corrado: Iestyn Davies (countertenor)

 

Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi

 

This follow up to the extremely successful Orlando Furioso sees another rarity in the Vivaldi Edition, with a world première recording of Griselda.

 

Marie-Nicole Lemieux is cast in the title role, backed by an incredible cast of singers. In fact this disc unites her once again with the Ensemble Matheus and the revelatory Jean-Christophe Spinosi, the winning combination which produced the award-winning and phenomenally successful Orlando Furioso.

 

The legend of Griselda, familiar from Chaucer and Boccaccio, is squirm-inducing: an improbably long-suffering wife who remains devoted in the face of repeated humiliation by her royal husband. Even in its more enlightened 18th-century incarnation, the story leaves a nasty taste. But it was a sure-fire hit with audiences in the 1720s and 1730s, when any Italian opera composer worth his salt turned out his own Griselda.

If Vivaldi's music sometimes seems too cheerful for the (almost invariably desperate) situation, the arias are often strikingly inventive, full of dizzying coloratura and the composer's trademark raw rhythmic energy. Highlights include a ferocious outburst for Griselda in response to a suitor's repulsive blackmail, a dramatic trio and a poignant slow aria for Costanza, the daughter Griselda believes dead.

As in his other Vivaldi recordings, Spinosi directs as if dancing on hot coals. If less would sometimes mean more, the singers respond brilliantly to his extravagant theatricality, with the flame-toned contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux magnificent as Griselda, and Verónica Cangemi singing Costanza's arias with a shapely sense of phrase and airy virtuosity.

Richard Wigmore, Telegraph

 

Naïve 3cds OP30419