Cavalli - Opera Duets and Arias

The Guardian 80

Semenzato/Pe/La Venexiana/Cavina
(Glossa)

Alongside their outstanding surveys of the madrigals of Gesualdo, Monteverdi and their contemporaries, Claudio Cavina and his superb group have also begun to explore the music of Francesco Cavalli. Five years ago, they released a recording of Artemesia, one of the most popular of Cavalli’s stage works in his lifetime, though almost forgotten now, and this latest collection of duets and arias, with the soprano Giulia Semenzato and counter-tenor Raffaele Pe accompanied by the instrumentalists of La Venexiana, is made up of extracts from 12 more. Only one of these works, Ormindo, which is represented by two duets, is at all well known today, and some have never been recorded before.