Orfeo son io • L'Arpeggiata
Orpheus, from Greek mythology, became a symbol of art’s power, love’s devotion, and the fragility of trust and doubt. A central work featured in this new album from L’Arpeggiata (on a new label) is the favola in musica, the opera L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi. The singer featured in this production is the Mexican-born tenor Rolando Villazón. The album takes selections from Monteverdi’s opera and surrounds them with both sung and instrumental pieces that finally give way to some more modern pieces that follow the greek god of music.
L’Arpeggiata, named after the famous lute piece by Kapsberger, has been an interesting interpreter of early music. The group has morphed a bit, I think, in its last decade from where they started, incorporating non-historical instruments to become, perhaps, more relevant to modern audiences. The pieces are often arrangements made by director Pluhar, to the point of maximizing the music. Adding percussion, bass, sometimes adding piano and other non-historical instruments, not to mention strongly affective singers, they have a following. And for some, I am sure, they are put off by the modernization aspect, arguing the music doesn’t need to be “dressed” for modern audiences.
I’ve traveled to France twice and a third time to New York to hear L’Apreggiata, and yes, after hearing one of their live concerts, it’s hard to not witness the dedication the changing rostrum of musicians have in moving their audience.
The omnipresent participation of a few core players gives the ensemble its sound, including Pluhar, who often commands with a large bass lute in her lap. Trombones (sackbuts) in this production give a special richness to the sound, as exploited in the Intrada à 6 by Buonamente.
Villazón's use of vibrato isn't too distracting from these sung performances. I do miss the participation of other voice types across the production, but Villazón's command of the early baroque vocal ornaments is on-point.
The “other” Orfeo opera, the one by Gluck, is also represented on this album with two tracks. Gluck is an entirely different world of style than Monteverdi, but I think the aria Che farò senza Euridice works well. The last two pieces hail from Latin America in far more modern times. Gardel—a French-Argentine singer and composer—is represented with Sus ojos se cerraron and Luiz Bonfá, a Brazilian composer—with a selection from the movie Black Orpheus (the French connection here may be that the movie was directed by Marcel Camus).
L’Arpeggiata has done well with Spanish- and Portugese-language music in the past. The consistent application of instruments allow them to combine these with those from the early 1600s.
I auditioned this new release on Qobuz in high resolution. No booklet from DG was provided. The performances sound as if they were made in a theater or space with adequate reverb which the percussion uses to fullest effect. I can’t speak to any audible change in the move to DG from Erato, but I would have liked to have had a booklet.
