Antonio Cesti's Le disgrazie d'Amour is a comic opera from 1667 that played very well in its day, though not as well as his slightly later Il pomo d'oro, which proved the defining smash of Cesti's short career. Time enough has passed to expunge the repertoire of anything that may have served as a hit to Cesti in the past, and sometimes performing groups have an excellent grasp of what opera from a composer to revive based on the quality of a work itself, rather than its perceived popularity at a given time. Carlo Ipata and Auser Musici's Cesti: Le disgrazie d'Amour on Hyperion is an excellent example of that.

The compositions recorded here are a significant example of musical taste as it spread to the other side of the English channel in the first decades of the 18th century. England welcomed the ‘Corellian’ style with such enthusiasm as to attract onto its banks a rich line-up of instrumentalists, singers, impresarios who with varying degrees of success contributed to the spread of the new Italian style based on the Sonata and the Concerto Grosso canonized in Corelli’s Op. V and VI. Francesco Geminiani arrived in London in 1714. As a direct disciple of Corelli, it was easy for him to become part of the musical life there in London, soon gaining great fame as a violinist.

Porpora is best known for his open rivalry with Handel on the London operatic scene, and is remembered more for the ferocious controversies that raged between the two men than for his music. But this dazzling new disc from Auser Musici shows the composer to be a profound musician with a rich and wide-ranging output, a mastery of compositional technique and a keen sense of theatre and dramatic pacing. Stylishly performed and recorded, this disc will surely force a reappraisal of Porpora’s artistry and reawaken interest in this great composer.

Davvero bella e coinvolgente l’interpretazione dei tre cantanti che sanno calarsi con efficacia e la giusta teatralità in queste du fascinose pagine, sorretti con brio e vitalità da Auser Musici, diretto con intelligenza, buon gusto e assoluta proprietà da Carlo Ipata.

By bringing Catone to disc Carlo Ipata is celebrating the pasticcio, especially those curated by George Frideric Handel, as is the case with this new Glossa release. In a co-production involving the Fondazione Teatro di Pisa and the Händel Festspiele Halle, Ipata brings a further slant on Handel’s operatic career in London; whilst being busy with running the second Royal Academy of Music and writing his own operas, the composer was striving to present London audiences with selections from the best of recent Italian operas by other composers – all at the same time as giving his star singers the opportunity to show off early in the opera company’s season. One result was Catone in 1732, with music by Leo, Hasse, Vivaldi, Vinci, Porpora as well as by Handel himself; company members included Senesino, Anna Maria Strada del Pò and Antonio Montagnana.