With its 2010 album Arie per tenore, Naïve offers the 47th installment in its gargantuan Vivaldi Project, Tesori del Piemonte. Like most of the vocal recitals in the series, it is heavily weighted with virtuosic arias. The tenor voice was often sidelined in early 18th century Italian opera in favor of the flasher and more agile castrati, but Vivaldi championed some of the most talented Venetian tenors of his time and created roles for them that were hardly less demanding than what he wrote for castrati and women's voices. Finnish tenor Topi Lehtipuu has a substantial voice, virile and heroic, with full, colorful tone. He's also a fine actor, and the variety of roles represented here are wonderfully differentiated. His is not naturally a coloratura voice, so the more virtuosic music with very fast passagework doesn't always fall as easily for him as for some of the women and countertenors featured in this series. His negotiation of the composer's extreme requirements does not always sound effortless, so the most demanding pieces don't create quite the sense of astonishment of singers who seem to be tossing the music off easily and spontaneously. The skill and finesse with which he does pull it off, though, is mightily impressive, and there are probably few tenors around with a voice the size of his who could manage these arias as effectively as he does. Especially engaging are the more lyrical arias like the lovely, delicately scored "Cessa tiranno amor" from L'Incoronazione di Dario. "Alle minacce di fiera belva" from Farnace, which prominently features two natural horns, is, quite literally, a blast, comically bombastic and wildly exhilarating. Diego Fasolis elicits performances with a marvelously vibrant energy and inventiveness from the orchestra I Barocchisti and Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera. Naïve's sound is characteristically clean, warm, and natural, with an excellent sense of presence.