Amazon.co.uk: Porpora - Orlando: Nicola Porpora: Music

Track Listings

Disc: 1
1. Ouverture: Lentement
2. Ouverture: Senza Indicazione Di Tempo
3. Ouverture: Allegro
4. Ombre Amene
5. Dimmi, Dimmi, Ove Sei?
6. Quel Cauto Nocchiero
7. Cotesti Tuoi Si Strani Dogmi
8. La Bella Mia Nemica
9. Zeffiro Lusinghiero
10. Amor A Te Mi Lega
See all 20 tracks on this disc
Disc: 2
1. Sinfonia
2. Mio Bel Medoro
3. Sopra Il Suo Stelo
4. Si, Mio Caro Medoro
5. La Tortora Innocente
6. Orlando, Oh Quanto In vano Ricercato
7. Costante, E Fedele
8. Non Ebbi Mai Piu Fortunato Giorno
9. Vanne, Felice Rio
10. Cosi Dunque S'impara Ad Ingannar
See all 26 tracks on this disc

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

A pure diamond of music, 1 Dec 2007

By	Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews

Such rare beauty in an opera makes you love baroque music more than we could have imagined possible. To reach universalism Porpora looks for exotic elements and nothing indeed stops him. A Chinese Princess like the Chinese scenes of The Fairy Queen. Some Scottish soldiers like the Britons of King Arthur. Even the Tiger and the Euphrates are there slowly running across the stage. You may wonder what this Mesopotamia or is it Sumerian Assyria is doing in this love boat. We are uprooted from everyday believability and you can forget about Charlemagne and the brave-hearted Roland and abandon them in the broom cupboard of old history. Porpora gives us a love drama. Believe it or not. A Chinese princess runs away from the two men who loves her and ends up in a magic forest somewhere in Europe but next to Paris. There she discovers Medoro dying of a wound. She heals him with plants and falls in love with him. She discovers her drastic fate when Roland arrives. She escapes with Medoro and the abandoned Roland falls into insanity. The music is also a rare example of beauty. Reminiscent of all Handel and Monteverdi, announcing Mozart maybe, it is delicate, fine and light and some arias or duets are more mesmerizing than the eyes of a prophet. For example the duet of Angelica and Medoro "Se infido tu mi chiami". Medoro's voice literally merges with Angelina's. And that's my only criticism. Why on earth is not Medoro an alto, a male voice? It warps Angelica's dilemma, torn between two men. It also reduces the power of love that merges a man and a woman into a unique being, but beyond a difference and there is no differences in the textures of these two voices. What is good for the Romeo and Juliet of the romantic Bellini is not so good in a baroque opera. Especially since Robert Expert is such a convincing Orlando, or Roland if you prefer, in line with Handel's David or Solomon. An Orlando whose lowest notes become as deep as the cave in which the drama is set, reverberating the rock that is crumbling under his feet into insanity. The DVD coming along with the recording gives some marvelous scenes, particularly part of the final furor. Robert Expert sacrifices himself under our voracious teeth, or is it love's, in the most exhilarating way.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines