Giuseppe Sigismondi de Risio, Armonia Atenea - Christoph Willibald Gluck: Il trionfo di Clelia (2012)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 929 Mb | Total time: 76:23+67:43+51:23 | Scans included
Classical | Label: MDG | # 609 1733-2 | Recorded: 2011
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 929 Mb | Total time: 76:23+67:43+51:23 | Scans included
Classical | Label: MDG | # 609 1733-2 | Recorded: 2011
On May 14, 1763, Bologna’s Teatro Comunale opened with the world premiere of Il trionfo di Clelia. Completed a year after Orfeo ed Euridice, Gluck’s setting of Metastasio’s story of romantic fidelity put to the test against the background of the Siege of Rome, was tailored both to display the new theatre’s capacity for spectacle (Act II calls for the collapse of a bridge and a heroic swim across the rising waters of the Tiber) and a cast hand-picked for their fioritura (embellishment of a melodic line). Thus while musicologists may cherish Il trionfo di Clelia for its pivotal role in the composer’s progress from the gilded cage of opera seria to the grand austerity of his reform operas, the rest of us can enjoy an inventive score.