Alexandre Baldo & l'Ensemble Mozaique - Porpora, Caldara, Smith, Handel, Vivaldi

Unusual Suspects Presumed guilty of the worst atrocities, 18th-century bass roles prove to be more complex and sensitive than their often frightening appearance suggests.

Unusual Suspects

Presumed guilty of the worst atrocities, 18th-century bass roles prove to be more complex and sensitive than their often frightening appearance suggests. A true gallery of portraits bringing together dragons, cyclops, gods, kings, archangels, and demons, this programme highlights the surprising multitude of emotions expressed by these mythical figures. It features virtuoso and expressive arias composed for the greatest basses of the era such as Christoph Praun or Antonio Montagnana.

PROGRAMME

Nicola Antonio Porpora – Arianna in Nasso – Ouverture

Antonio Caldara – Il lamento d’Orfeo – Cantate

Antonio Caldara – Andromaca – Balletto dell’atto quinto

John Christopher Smith –The Paradise lost – Aria “Thou henceforth art doom’d”

Georg Friedrich Händel – Acis and Galatea (version de 1736) – Scena “Mi palpita il cor … Affanno tiranno“

ENTRACTE

Antonio Vivaldi – Armida al campo d’Egitto – Ouverture

Antonio Vivaldi – Armida al campo d’Egitto – Aria “So, che combatte ancor“

Nicola Porpora Arianna in Nasso – Aria “Più l’impresa perigli n’appresta“

Nicola Porpora – Deianira, Iole ed Ercole – Ouverture

Johann Mattheson – Die geheimen Begebenheiten Henrico IV. – Aria ”Se’l primo amor“

Francesco Maria Veracini – Adriano in Siria – Aria “Non ritrova un’alma forte”

DISTRIBUTION

Alexandre Baldo, bass-baritone

and

Ensemble Mozaïque

Chloé de Guillebon, harpsichord and direction

Gabriele Toscani, violin

Pietro Battistoni, violin

Joanna Patrick-Taffs, viola

Celeste Casiraghi, cello

Elias Conrad, theorbo