New Release: Ren̩ Jacobs РLa finta giardiniera РNot your garden variety Mozart
October 17th, 2012 | Published in News, Recordings, Uncategorized
La finta giardiniera – LISTEN TO THIS RECORDING RIGHT HERE ON THIS STATION!
RENÉ JACOBSÂ
FREIBURGER BAROCKORCHESTRA
After Die Zauberflöte, Idomeneo, La Clemenza di Tito, and the Da Ponte operas, René Jacobs presents Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera
-Â the posthumous Prague version (1796)Â
Following his thrilling interpretation of Mozart’s final operatic masterpiece, Die Zauberflöte, René Jacobs turns to early Mozart in this new addition to his series of Mozart operas.  La Finta Giardiniera, composed in 1775 when Mozart was just 18, was one of his least-known operas, perhaps because the original Munich version, sung in Italian, quickly disappeared from the repertoire before being revived in German in 1779. A posthumous version from 1796 Prague, discovered in the music library of Count Heinrich Wilhelm Haugwitz in Námest, includes additional wind parts and displays skillful re-orchestration. While the arranger’s name remains a mystery, in view of their elegance and sensitivity, scholars agree he was a connoisseur of Mozart’s style. René Jacobs, who sees in the opera “a very ancient form of theatre, which blithely mingles farce with great passions … and elements typical of a ‘modern’ initiatory opera,” draws on the “Námest” score for this recording.
La Finta Giardiniera includes British tenor Jeremy Ovenden as Count Belfiore and Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Alex Penda) as the vengeful Arminda. Sunhae Im and Michael Nagy appear as Serpetta and Nardo and Marie-Claude Chappuis (Cavaliere Ramiro), Sophie Karthäuser (Sandrina) and Nicolas Riveno (Podesta) complete the cast of this fascinating opera.
harmonai mundi HMC 902126