AMATE STELLE
Arias for Anna Maria Strada

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
01Aria: Con più diletto il mio Cupido
La verità in cimento (Venezia, 1720)

Domenico Sarro (1679-1744)
02 Aria: Se veglia, se dorme, l’amante mio core
Tito Sempronio Gracco (Napoli, 1725)

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
03 Aria: Scherza in mar la navicella 5:26
Lotario (London, 1729)

Leonardo Vinci (1690-1730)
04 Recitativo: Io gelosa non sono & Aria: Il ruscelletto amante
Eraclea (Napoli, 1724)

Leonardo Leo (1694-1744)
05 Recitativo: Ma per pietà & Aria: Non vedi tiranno ch’io moro d’affanno
Achille in Sciro (Torino, 1740)

George Frideric Handel
06 Aria: Ah! Mio cor!
Alcina (London, 1735)

Leonardo Leo
07 Aria: Quando irato il ciel s’oscura
Zenobia in Palmira (Napoli, 1725)

Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785)
08 Aria: Infelice in van mi lagno
Adriano in Siria (Torino, 1740)

Leonardo Leo
09 Aria: No, ingrato, amor non senti
Achille in Sciro (Torino, 1740)

George Frideric Handel
10 Aria: Scaglian amore e sangue
Arminio (London, 1737)

Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1692-1753)
11 Aria: Oh Dio, mancar mi sento
Adriano in Siria (Napoli, 1739)

Nicola Porpora (1686-1768)
12 Recitativo: Non so più dov’io sia
13 Aria: Vi conosco amate stelle
Tiridate (Napoli, 1740)

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About this album

The young Swiss soprano Marie Lys was pleasantly surprised to discover that many of the roles she has sung in George Frideric Handel’s works in recent years were written for the spectacularly virtuoso soprano Anna Maria Strada, Handel’s prima donna in the London of the 1730s. Accompanied by the Abchordis Ensemble and Andrea Buccarella, the group’s conductor and harpsichordist, Marie Lys decided to dedicate her first solo CD on Glossa to “La Stradina”, with an in-depth study of Anna Maria’s life on stage and the extraordinary vocal skills her roles demanded. Marie Lys has selected a repertoire that traces the career of this unique soprano in a representative way: the musical journey begins in Venice with Vivaldi’s La verità in cimento from 1720, and leads via Naples (with arias from operas by Domenico Sarro, Leonardo Leo and Leonardo Vinci) to London with three arias from Handel’s operas Lotario, Alcina and Arminio. After a successful decade in London, she returned to the Italian stages in 1738, where she rounded off her career with performances in Naples and Turin in operas by Ristori, Porpora and Galuppi. New roles and operatic music thought lost come to light on this recording. A fine example is the music from Popora’s Tiridate, from which this album takes its title “Amate Stelle”.