Hasse: Antonio E Cleopatra

As the previous reviewer noted, director Matthew Dirst has chosen to add woodwind to the original score for basso continuo and strings only. I can only say that the production here feels "complete" and would probably lack something otherwise. Perhaps in its original form and intended location of performance as a serenata, that is to say a bit of outdoor light entertainment of a summer evening, it would have felt complete then, but not necessarily as a recording for compact disc.Soprano Ava Pine (Cleopatra) and mezzo Jamie Barton (Marco Antonio) along with the ensemble Ars Lyrica Houston do the work reasonable justice in a competent and decent but not truly outstanding recording. Nevertheless for baroque enthusiasts it's certainly worth a look into this example from an under-represented composer. Hopefully Hasse is going to undergo something of a revival and we will see recordings of much more of his work in future.Double disc set in a foldout digipak, with booklet containing brief notes and full libretto with translation.

Eigentlich sollte die Veröffentlichung der ersten Gesamtaufnahme von Hasses 1725 geschriebener Serenade für jeden Freund des unterschätzten Meisters ein Grund zu heller Freude sein, doch leider erreicht diese Einspielung keineswegs das Ziel, eine Referenzaufnahme zu sein.Verzeihlich mag sein, dass die für den Kastraten Farinelli geschriebene Rolle der Cleopatra hier nicht mit einem hohen Countertenor besetzt wurde, wodurch der von Hasse intendierten Geschlechtstravestie viel von ihrem Reiz genommen wurde. Die junge Sopranistin Ava Pine macht ihre Sache recht gut, obwohl ihr die letzte Reife und Souveränität abgehen, sehr ärgerlich ist ihr stark amerikanisch gefärbtes unidiomatisches Italienisch. Die Kadenzen und Verzierungen bringen dann auch sehr schnell die technischen Grenzen der Sängerin zu Gehör.Völlig indiskutabel agiert leider die Mezzosopranistin Jaime Barton in der für die große Sängerin Tesi geschriebenen Rolle des Marc Antonio: Viele unschön gepresste Töne, mangelhafte Technik, teilweise miserable Intonation und eine tödlich langweilige Gestaltung machen es fast unmöglich, ihre langen Arien zu Ende zu hören.Ebenfalls nicht auf höchstem Niveau spielt das Ensemble Ars Lyrica Houston. Unnötig, wenngleich nicht sehr störend, ist auch die "Bereicherung" der originalen Streicherbesetzung durch Holzbläser. Die Tempi sind teils zu schleppend (besonders in den quälend langsam musizierten Rezitativen), teils hektisch überhetzt.Insgesamt hat man den Eindruck, dass die Texaner sich in punkto historischer Aufführungspraxis noch auf dem Stand der frühen 80ger-Jahre bewegen.Ein für so bedeutende Gesangsstars geschriebenes Werk verträgt einfach keine zweitklassige Interpretation, man wünscht sich Künstler vom Range eines Jaroussky oder einer Genaux in den anspruchsvollen Partien. Schade, dass diese Weltpremiere so daneben ging.

Un éditeur peu connu, une interprétation de très bon niveau par des artistes inconnus en Europe: en Amérique on peut aussi faire de la belle ouvrage avec un répertoire qui n'encombre pas nos rayonnages.

I am very happy to receive this Opera - it is a long time coming. The music is beautiful and I hear it every day. Thank you very much.

This recording would deserve five or even six stars because of the amazing voices of the singers, both very impassioned and cut out for their roles (the fact that Cleopatra's part was written for no less than Farinelli speaks volumes about its amazing expressiveness) and the extraordinary strength and impulse of Dirst's direction of the very refined players of Ars Lyrica Houston (on original instruments): vivid particulars are spotlighted as well as the perfect dramatic consistency of the whole work. There's only one reason why I chose to give four stars instead. Quoting from the booklet: "Hasse's score makes vivid the complex emotions of his title characters in eight arias, two duets, and some highly expressive recitative; the whole is introduced by a Sinfonia in two movements. Though the work is scored for just strings and continuo, this recording adds various woodwinds (oboes, recorders, flute and bassoon), rendering even more colorful Hasse's imaginative and supple ideas." I don't know: this habit may even spring from a contemporary practise with woodwinds enhancing the string line but I'm not sure "Hasse's imaginative and supple ideas" need that. I would have liked to listen to the original color of the orchestra: Baroque string orchestras can be so varied and apt to represent each and every feeling ("affetti") of the text, all the more so if the composer himself wanted it to be so!As for the music itself, this 'serenata' is a real treat: of course everyone cannot be such a master as Handel was, along with a very few other composers of his age, in catching in recitatives the real accents and inflections of spoken Italian (you can't realize that if you're not Italian, or at least speak Italian very well!)---Hasse seems to cope well with the task (he'd only lived in Italy for five years when he wrote Marcantonio e Cleopatra), even though sometimes the recitatives sound somewhat strange, with high notes out of place, for instance, or words stressed that had better not be and so on (this is what I feel anyway: maybe on a second and third hearing I will feel different). Arias and duets give us an uninterrupted series of little masterpieces, and the singers Ava Pine as Cleopatra and Jamie Barton as Antonio do really make them sound exactly as they should. Bravissime.Here's hoping Ars Lyrica Houston will go on producing and recording such masterpieces from the early XVIIth century repertoire---it's about time we knew and loved them through such first class renditions.