The composer Leonardo Vinci, no relation to the artist and polymath, was born in 1690 and died in 1730, apparently after being poisoned by a jealous husband. He was thus 20 years older than Pergolesi, but his music was nearly as progressive as that of the better-known younger composer. At the turn of the century, he was known mostly to musicologists, but his scores, often fresh and action-packed, are percolating out to the general operatic public. This is the world premiere of Vinci's 1727 opera Gismondo, Rè di Polonia. The presentation is a bit musicological, with a massive booklet delving into, among other things, why Italians should have wanted to take up a Polish subject, but the music itself is lots of fun. The opera, with its tale of power at the medieval Polish court, could be classified as an opera seria, but the story is told through a series of romantic entanglements that, although not exactly comic, keep the action moving along through intrigue rather than through splendid arias, aided by fast-moving dialogue. On top of this, the recording, based on a 2018 production at the Theater an der Wien, serves as a star vehicle for countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic, who brings no fewer than three other countertenors on board, as well as three sopranos. The result is a sort of festival of the soprano voice, male and female, in shades running from creamy to slashing to billowing to powerful, and more. The singers, led by Cencic as Gismondo, and the {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna, have a sense of fun that is attractive even for the listener who knows little of this repertory, and the album is likely to attract further performances of the opera, of different kinds.
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