This live recording on the Oehms Classics label is the first ever for little-known Italian composer Giovanni Battista Ferrandini's mega-obscure 1753 opera Catone in Utica. Set to a familiar libretto by Pietro Metastasio and utilized by Vivaldi, Johann Christian Bach, and others, Catone in Utica is a rather Handelian Italian opera chosen to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Residenz-Theater in Munich. Catone in Utica was the opera that opened the Residenz-Theater upon its first night back on October 12, 1753. Not many opera houses still stand from that long ago, having fallen to neglect or to warfare; likewise not many opera scores exist as complete entities from that time. That the Staatstheters am Gärtnerplatz, which undertook this production, should have both the house and the work at their disposal is in itself nothing short of a miracle.
Ferrandini's Catone in Utica is a competent, but dated, opera that squarely belongs in the middle of the eighteenth century, a time when Europe's crowned heads and moneyed aristocrats preferred their operas on the predictable and anti-dramatic side. As much as one would like to commend the addition of this work to the recorded repertoire, for every bit of excitement that Ferrandini tries to bring to the table there is an equal amount of underwhelming material that runs on for pages. For example, Cesare's aria "Nell' ardire ch'il seno t'accende" is a strident, inflated-sounding piece that, while not wholly bereft of surprising harmonic twists, is in the main rather bland and predictable. Tenor
Kobie van Rensburg does a pretty good job overall in the title role, but loses his footing once in awhile, most unfortunately during his big first act aria "Si sgomenti alle tue pene."
Catone in Utica is given as "live," and if so the audience is very quiet indeed. The recording is clear and a bit distant -- some singers are harder to hear as they move around the stage. None of this will bother most listeners who love off-the-wall operas, just don't expect to be sent to heaven as Catone in Utica is clearly of this Earth.