Avanti l'Opera - An A-Z of Italian Baroque Overtures (2014)
Avanti l'Opera - An A-Z of Italian Baroque Overtures (2014)
EAC Rip | Flac (Image + cue + log) | 317 MB | MP3 320Kbps CBR | 156 MB | 1 CD | Full Scans
Genre: Classical | Label: Signum U.k. | Catalog Number: 383
EAC Rip | Flac (Image + cue + log) | 317 MB | MP3 320Kbps CBR | 156 MB | 1 CD | Full Scans
Genre: Classical | Label: Signum U.k. | Catalog Number: 383
Early-music pioneers Charivari Agréable perform an engaging collection of overtures from Italian Baroque Opera, best described by Kah-Ming Ng as being “lucidly crafted for the purpose of turning heads”. In a decadent era when the antics of theatre-goers were often as intriguing as the performances taking place on stage, these works were composed with the express intention of thrilling, beguiling and engaging an often hard-to-impress audience.
Composer: Attilio Ariosti, Leonardo Vinci, Giovanni Bononcini, Antonio Caldara, …
Performer: Will Russell, Simon Desbruslais
Conductor: Kah-Ming Ng
Orchestra/Ensemble: Charivari Agréable
Reviews: I had the good fortune, last week, to see someone buy this CD in my local music shop. She studied the back of it for some time, scratched her head, and tentatively handed over her credit card to pay for it. The man at the counter said. “You won’t regret this; it is lovely,” to which the lady buying it responded, “I hope so.” I hoped so, too: It promises so much with that glossy front cover.
It is quite a comprehensive anthology of overtures. There are 17 of them in total. The range of composers is also satisfying, from Albioni to Ziani. Music ranges from the outré and the slapstick, to the coy and simple. Alexander Pope, in his large epic The Dunciad, once called Italian opera a “harlot form, with mincing step and languid eye,” which is a witticism amply revealed here in the range of aural tricks. As overtures, they are designed to arrest, and like Pope’s “harlot form” the overture has enough to cover the subject, but little enough to remain interesting. We flit between composers, works, time periods, tones, methodologies, keys and characters throughout the course of CD, and it is a genuine pleasure to be thrown hither and thither. A highlight, for me, was Bononcini’s sad and threatening Cefalo, which is full of a cello player’s sense of darkness.
Great credit has to go to Charivari Agréable, the group whose technical proficiency has given life to a series of very obscure opera overtures. This CD is a worthy companion piece to other opera anthologies, both popular and obscure, since it nestles happily in the genre of “introductory” rather than “exhaustive”: an intention highlighted by the obvious fun the orchestra has with its solo moments and general camaraderie. As a window into the period, it makes one realise just how formulaic and repetitive the vogue for Italian opera could be, but it is also refreshingly representative of the variety and nuances composers could inject into the form. It is a confusing collection, in many ways: Scarlatti, Ariosti, Bononcini, Pasquini, and Ziani on one CD is a little baffling. But, I suggest, that is irrelevant, and that the CD is satisfying regardless.
Tracklisting:
[1] Attilio Ariosti: Vespasiano
[2] Leonardo Leo: Catone in Utica
[3] Giovanni Bononcini: Cefalo
[4] Antonio Caldara: L'Olimpiade
[5] Carlo Francesco Pollarolo: La Proserpine
[6] Alessandro Scarlatti: La Statira
[7] Giovanni Bononcini: Turno Aricino
[8] Giovanni Bononcini: Il trionfo di Camilla
[9] Giuseppe Antonio Bernabei: L'Ascanio
[10] Bernardo Pasquini: L'Idalma
[11] Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni: Zenobia
[12] Pietro Andrea Ziani: Il Talamo
[13] Carlo Francesco Pollarolo: Gl'inganni felici
[14] Giovanni Legrenzi: Il Totila
[15] Agostino Steffani: La lotta d'Alcide con Acheloo
[16] Alessandro Scarlatti: La caduta di Decemviri
[17] Francesco Bartolomeo Conti: Il trionfo della fama
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 11. July 2015, 9:20
Charivari Agréable, Kah-Ming Ng / Avanti l'Opera
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GU70N Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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16 | 52:44.04 | 4:09.11 | 237304 | 255989
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Range status and errors
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Filename C:\temp\Avanti l'Opera\Avanti l'Opera.wav
Peak level 95.4 %
Extraction speed 5.3 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A0CC049A
Copy CRC A0CC049A
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
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End of status report
==== Log checksum 2EB8EAC876A08523ECC7D37CE230726E13892485B13194F64A24BF41268220C0 ====
EAC extraction logfile from 11. July 2015, 9:20
Charivari Agréable, Kah-Ming Ng / Avanti l'Opera
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GU70N Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:43.61 | 0 | 25785
2 | 5:43.61 | 2:39.41 | 25786 | 37751
3 | 8:23.27 | 2:25.46 | 37752 | 48672
4 | 10:48.73 | 4:47.63 | 48673 | 70260
5 | 15:36.61 | 4:14.54 | 70261 | 89364
6 | 19:51.40 | 3:23.21 | 89365 | 104610
7 | 23:14.61 | 3:45.23 | 104611 | 121508
8 | 27:00.09 | 4:53.51 | 121509 | 143534
9 | 31:53.60 | 2:56.43 | 143535 | 156777
10 | 34:50.28 | 3:05.32 | 156778 | 170684
11 | 37:55.60 | 4:03.07 | 170685 | 188916
12 | 41:58.67 | 3:51.29 | 188917 | 206270
13 | 45:50.21 | 2:29.52 | 206271 | 217497
14 | 48:19.73 | 1:52.45 | 217498 | 225942
15 | 50:12.43 | 2:31.36 | 225943 | 237303
16 | 52:44.04 | 4:09.11 | 237304 | 255989
17 | 56:53.15 | 6:19.60 | 255990 | 284474
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\temp\Avanti l'Opera\Avanti l'Opera.wav
Peak level 95.4 %
Extraction speed 5.3 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A0CC049A
Copy CRC A0CC049A
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database
Track 8 not present in database
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Track 11 not present in database
Track 12 not present in database
Track 13 not present in database
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Track 15 not present in database
Track 16 not present in database
Track 17 not present in database
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report
==== Log checksum 2EB8EAC876A08523ECC7D37CE230726E13892485B13194F64A24BF41268220C0 ====
Thanks to the original releaser