Vivica Genaux.(Arias by Porpora, Hasse, Broschi Giacomelli)

Arias by Porpora, Hasse, Broschi Giacomelli. Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, Jacobs. Texts and translations. Harmonia Mundi HMC 901778

When the packaging of a compact disc is as sumptuous as this one's is, one approaches its performances with trepidation. But happily this recording--which offers seventy-seven minutes of music, has a bound-in booklet containing fourteen pages of notes in the English-language text and reproduces two pages of a Porpora manuscript--is not a case of the tail wagging the dog. The repertoire of Italian Baroque arias written for the castrato Carlo Broschi, popularly known as Farinelli (1769-1836), is worth exploring in itself, and the performances by mezzosoprano Vivica Genaux and the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin under Rene Jacobs are of the highest quality. Genaux's voice frequently puts the listener in mind of Marilyn Horne's early recordings. Tone becomes more compact, rather than spread, in the low register, there is plenty of breath at the ends of phrases, and a rapid vibrato is often favored. (The upper range is a little thinner and more girlish than Horne's.) In an era when we so often read of a singer who "lacks a real trill," Genaux's is remarkably clean, perhaps the best in the business today. She is especially noteworthy for her facility in wide leaps and arpeggios. These are on such ample display in the first section of an excerpt from Idaspe, by Riccardo Broschi (brother of Farinelli), that we can only wonder what she could possibly add in the da capo repeat. Quite a bit more, ...