Vivaldi: Armida al Campo d'Egitto

Even by Vivaldi's own quirky standards as an opera composer, this is strange. Its source is Tasso's war epic Gerusalemme Liberata, but whereas most other composers were inspired by the great love affair across battle lines between Rinaldo and Armida, Vivaldi dramatises its messy aftermath, in which Armida heads for Egypt, where she uses all her sexual powers in an attempt to persuade the caliph and his generals to raise an army against Rinaldo's forces on her behalf. For a work on an erotic subject by one of music's great sensualists, it's curiously dark and difficult. There's a very high proportion of recitative to arias, and some of the latter are perfunctory. The scoring is very austere, and with the exception of one soprano role, the entire thing is written for low voices. Parts of the second act are missing from Vivaldi's manuscript, so a huge amount of reconstructive work has been done for this recording by its conductor, Rinaldo Alessandrini. The singing is variable. Sara Mingardo gives a towering performance, and there are wonderful contributions from Martín Oro and Romina Basso. The rest of the cast aren't in the same league.