Mezzo-soprano VIVICA GENAUX sings arias composed for Carlo Broschi - better known as FARINELLI, the most famous castrato of all time, under the direction of RENÉ JACOBS - the leading countertenor of his day and today’s foremost Early Music specialist.
Farinelli (1705-82), unrivalled for his vocal agility and the range and beauty of his singing, knocked the socks off royalty (and everyone who heard him!). We can only imagine the sound of his "lost voice" - understandably, there is no extant recording.
In this, her debut CD on the harmonia mundi label, Vivica travels the peaks and valleys of Farinelli’s arias with remarkable facility and her trademark richness of voice, setting off vocal fireworks that will surely knock your socks off!
Listen to some clips. The ornamentations for this and every aria on the CD were composed for Vivica by Maestro René Jacobs. The recording was made in January 2002 following a successful European tour with Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik. (Audio streaming with permission of harmonia mundi.) This outstanding CD is beautifully packaged in a book form that contains excellent documentation about the music, the artists, and Farinelli and the age of castratos.
| “Qual guerriero in campo armato” (Track 3, from the opera Idaspe by Riccardo Broschi) |
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| “Dall’amor più sventurato” (Track 1, from the opera Orfeo by Nicola Antonio Porpora) |
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| “Mancare Dio mi sento” (Track 4, from the opera Adriano in Siria by Geminiano Giacomelli) |
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| “Per questo dolce amplesso” (Track 10, from the opera Artaserse by Johann Adolf Hasse) |
Read an interview with Vivica Genaux by Jean-Marc Berns
(Reprinted with permission of harmonia mundi)
Read excerpts from reviews of the CD
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