FRANCESCA CACCINILa liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina Florence, 1625
GCD 923902
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Elena Biscuola, Alcina Mauro Borgioni, Ruggiero Gabriella Martellacci, Melissa Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli, Sirena, Una Damigella Emanuela Galli, La Nunzia Oreste, La Dama disincantata Raffaele Giordani, Nettuno, Un Pastore, Una Pianta incantataYiannis Vassilakis, Fiume Vistola, Astolfo
Allabastrina La Pifarescha Elena Sartori
Production details
Total playing time 79:10 Recorded in Ferrara, Italy, in August and September 2016 Engineered and produced by Fabio Framba Executive producer: Carlos Céster Booklet essay by Elena Sartori English - Français - Deutsch - Italiano
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FRANCESCA CACCINI (1587-c1641)La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina Florence, 1625
Prologo 01 Sinfonia 02 Non perché congiurati (Nettuno, Vistola) 03 Biondo Dio del bel Permesso (Numi delle acque) 04 Tra gli ardori (Numi delle acque) 05 Poscia che’l Cielo (Nettuno, Numi delle acque) Scena I 06 Sinfonia 07 Così, perfida Alcina (Melissa) 08 Qui si può dire (Damigelle) 09 Quanto per dolce e mia beata sorte (Ruggiero, Alcina) 10 Quando Amor l’arco vuol tendere (Una Damigella) 11 Rimanti, ò mio Signore (Alcina, Ruggiero) 12 Aure volanti (Damigelle) 13 O quanto è dolce amar (Ruggiero) 14 Per la più vaga e bella (Pastore, Ruggiero) 15 Chi nel fior di giovinezza (Sirena, Ruggiero) 16 Il risveglio di Ruggiero (percussion improvisation) 17 Ecco l’ora ecco il punto (Melissa, Ruggiero) 18 Ruggier de’ danni asprissimi (Piante incantate, Ruggiero, Melissa) 19 O bei pensieri volate (Damigelle) 20 Qui lasciai la mia vita (Alcina, una Damigella) 21 Non so qual sia maggiore (Nunzia, Alcina) 22 Ahi, Melissa (Alcina, una Damigella, Ruggiero)23 Pur quel noioso aspetto (Ruggiero, Melissa)
Scena II 24 Proverà, crudeltà (Mostri) 25 E come ohimè (Astolfo, Melissa, Alcina)
Scena III 26 O miseri mortali (Melissa)
Scena IV 27 Ballo (‘Il cavalier di Spagna’ by Magistro Rofino) 28 Versate occhi (Dama disincantata, Melissa) 29 Ai diletti, al gioire (Coro) 30 Ballo (‘Battaglia del Barabasso’ by Andrea Falconieri) 31 Tosche, del sol più belle (Coro)
About this CD
With this production of Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggerio dall'isola di Alcina, directed by Elena Sartori, an important stepping-stone in the development of seventeenth-century opera receives a superb new recording from Glossa. For much of her career – Caccini was a composer, a virtuoso singer, a teacher, a poet and a multiinstrumentalist – she worked at the Medici court, and was commissioned by the grand duchess of Tuscany, Maria Maddalena of Austria, to write this commedia in musica for performance in Florence in 1625. Very probably this was the first opera composed by a woman, and its performance in Warsaw in 1628 stands as the first documented Italian opera known to have been staged outside the peninsula.
Caccini’s score, evoking not just the music of her father Giulio but that of Jacopo Peri and of the Monteverdi of Venice, is full of musical diversity and originality. The libretto of La liberazione (by Ferdinando Saracinelli, working from Ludovico Ariosto’s epic Orlando furioso) portrays the struggle between two sorceresses – one ‘good’, Melissa, the other ‘evil’, Alcina – over the young knight Ruggiero, who has been bewitched by Alcina. The singers recorded here for these roles are Gabriella Martellacci, Elena Biscuola and Mauro Borgioni, whilst other roles – in a score packed with vocal opportunities – are taken by Emanuela Galli, Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli and Raffaele Giordani. Elena Sartori, who directs the ensembles Allabastrina and La Pifarescha, also contributes an illuminating booklet essay placing Francesca Caccini in her musical and biographical context.
With this production of Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggerio dall’isola di Alcina, directed by Elena Sartori, an important stepping-stone in the development of seventeenth-century opera receives a superb new recording from Glossa. For much of her career – Caccini was a composer, a virtuoso singer, a teacher, a poet and a multiinstrumentalist – she worked at the Medici court, and was commissioned by the grand duchess of Tuscany, Maria Maddalena of Austria, to write this commedia in musica for performance in Florence in 1625. Very probably this was the first opera composed by a woman, and its performance in Warsaw in 1628 stands as the first documented Italian opera known to have been staged outside the peninsula. [read more...]