Release Date: 01 January 2007
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313003570
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: SARRI / GASPARINI / BONONCINI
Description
Domenico Sarri (1679–1744) Moschetta e Grullo Francesco Gasparini (1661–1727) Giovanni Bononcini (1670–1747) Mirena e Floro o La Nana francese e Armena The genre of early eighteenth-century comic chamber operas known as intermezzi was among the most popular forms of entertainment of the day. Their genesis can be found in the serious opera, or opera seria, which in its early stages often had comic characters incorporated in the libretto, usually servants or peasants. Around 1706 these comic characters were separated from the larger opera and given their own opera, performed as interludes between the acts of the opera seria. Hence the title intermezzi. After a brief transitional period, the intermezzo developed its own traditions and formulas which had no connection at all with the opera seria. The characters and situations were directly derived from the commedia dell'arte tradition of improvised theatre. Slapstick, sight gags and disguises were widely incorporated into the intermezzi, as in commedia. Since they had the added element of music, though, they incorporated patter singing, wide fluctuations in tempi, large ranges for the singers and many instrumental and vocal effects to exaggerate the comedy.The intermezzo spread rapidly throughout Europe from its centre in Naples, reaching Moscow in 1731 and London in 1737. After 1750 or so (with the noted exception of Paris, where an Italian troupe performed several intermezzi to great acclaim and notoriety), the popularity of the intermezzi began to wane as audiences became more interested in larger scale comic operas with several characters and more complex plots. Works which were direct descendants of the intermezzi tradition continued to be written, though, as seen in such works as Haydn's La Canterina (1766), Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne (1768) and Cherubini's early Il marito giocatore (1775), and even, rarely, into the twentieth century in Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna (1909). Moschetta e GrulloBorn in Naples, Domenico Sarri (also called Sarro), although quite forgotten today, is consistently listed, along with Hasse, Vinci, Leo and Pergolesi, as one of the foremost composers of intermezzi of his day. He seems to have split his creative activities almost equally between serious and comic operas, although it is for the latter that he is most highly regarded. Sarri was not a well-travelled composer and enjoyed only a brief period of success in Naples, where he spent almost his entire life. Only between around 1718 and 1726 were his operas much performed, although he was active much longer. In 1728 he was named maestro di cappella to the city of Naples, and then maestro di cappella at the court there in 1737. In this position, it fell to him to compose the opera which had the honour of opening the newly built Teatro San Carlo in 1737: Achille in Sciro. Some of the neglect of Sarri is due, in part, to disparaging comments
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Lully
Zhou:Battersby
Zhou:Battersby
