GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL (1685-1759)

Arias from Italian Cantatas

CD I [60:46]

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. 1:

Tra le fiamme, HWV 170
01 Tra le fiamme
02 Pien di nuovo e bel diletto
03 Voli per l’aria

Pensieri notturni di Filli, HWV 134
04 Giacché il sonno a lei dipinge
05 Ha l’inganno

Il delirio amoroso, HWV 90
06 Sonata (instr.)
07 Un pensiero voli in cielo
08 Per te lasciai la luce
09 Lascia ormai le brune vele
10 In queste amene

Figlio d’alte speranze, HWV 113
11 Troppo costa
12 Sia guida, sia stella
13 Brillava protetto

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. II:

Diana cacciatrice, HWV 79
14 La Marche (instr.)
15 Alla caccia, alla caccia
16 Foriera la tromba

CD II [61:23]

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. V:

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, HWV 96
01 Ouverture (instr.)
02 Cor fedele
03 Quell’erbetta
04 Fermati! No, crudel
05 Tra le fere la fera più cruda
06 Un sospiretto d’un labbro pallido
07 Vivere e non amar, amare e non languir

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. VI:

Olinto, pastore arcade, HWV 143
08 Sonata (instr.)
09 Oh! Come chiare e belle
10 Al suon che destano
11 Alle voci del bronzo guerriero

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. VII:

Apollo e Dafne, HWV 122
12 Felicissima quest’alma
13 Ardi, ardori e preghi
14 Una guerra ho dentro il seno
15 Come in ciel benigna stella
16 Deh, lascia addolcire

Agrippina condotta a morire, HWV 110
17 Orrida, oscura
18 Renda cenere il tiranno
19 Se infelice al mondo
20 Su, lacerate il seno

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About this CD

For the second Glossa Portrait release the spotlight falls upon a singer who, since the 1990s, has been excelling in broad swathes of Italian Baroque music, whose qualities had remained under-performed and under-appreciated until musicians of sufficient quality and understanding of such repertoire had emerged. The soprano Roberta Invernizzi has been one such musician, gifted with an ability to master the technical, expressive and temperamental challenges set by composers of that time. Many are the recordings of the music of Vivaldi, Monteverdi and Alessandro Scarlatti graced by Invernizzi’s sparkling presence (and she has also added a scintillating theatrical verve to many of the incursions into Neapolitan opera buffa in the company of Antonio Florio).

Given Roberta Invernizzi’s notable successes on stage (and on recordings) in portraying some of Handel’s more famous female characters from the operas of his maturity, it was an inspired choice of Fabio Bonizzoni to involve the Milanese singer in his series of Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, and Invernizzi appeared on no less than five of the seven discs in that greatly-admired series. This two-disc Portrait album draws on those recordings to highlight the delicious characterizations of Invernizzi in Handel’s vivid and visceral portrayals of nymphs and goddesses such as Diana, Cloris, Amarilis, Lidia and Fili, Arcadian characters one and all but nonetheless human in personality. Alongside the opportunity to experience the “feminine” viewpoint explored through arias from Handel’s Italian Cantatas there is a chance also to enjoy with this new release the instrumental qualities of players found in Fabio Bonizzoni’s La Risonanza.