Michelangelo Gasparini News
Italian composer and singer
- countertenor
- Republic of Venice
- composer, opera singer
Last update
2024-04-24
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2022-02-14 07:43:59
[…] (a co-production between Irish National Opera and the Royal Opera House) was something of a little miracle having been planned originally for the period of lockdown. Re-assembling funding and performers to create the production this year was quite an achievement. It opened in Ireland on 16 January 2022, doing a seven date tour before the six performances at the Royal Opera House. Vivaldi's opera uses Agostino Piovene's libretto which was originally set by Francesco Gasparini in Venice in 1711. In fact Gasparini made two settings of the libretto, the second in 1719 and it was this latter setting which influenced Handel's Tamerlano. [see my review of the recording of Gasparini's 1719 Il Bajazet on Glossa] For Gasparini in 1719, Ippolito Zanella vastly expanded the role of Bajazet in the opera, and this was taken over by Handel. By contrast, Vivaldi's 1735 opera relies on the […]
2021-04-30 08:05:52
Bach's Goldberg Variations in a winning new arrangement for violin, guitar and cello
[…] there is a lot more. What is miraculous is not Bach's use of numerology, but the way he could do it so deftly that the listener is essentially unware of the complexities. We should remove from our minds the idea of Bach as the isolated genius working away in Leipzig, he was clearly in touch with the musical world and during the 1740s he copied, transcribed and adapted music by composers as varied as Palestrina, Gasparini, Caldara and Pergolesi. So he was familiar with the way these composers (some earlier, some younger than Bach), writing in the stile antico, could make complexity of construction into something effortless. But there is humour too, the final variation is a Quodlibet which involves two popular songs, Ich bin so lang nicht bey dir g'west (It’s been so long since I’ve been together with you) and Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben (Cabbages and […]
2020-10-01 06:49:26
Toe-tapping arias & moments of drama: Vivaldi's Tamerlano from Ottavio Dantone & Accademia Bizantina
[…] era without radio and recording, once an opera was performed it was lost and the chance of an audience member in one city having heard a pre-existing opera in another was small. Also, arias were added and changed by performers all the time, opera was understood to be an art in flux, what counted was the performance of the singers on the night. The opera uses Agostino Piovene's libretto which was originally set by Francesco Gasparini in Venice in 1711. In fact Gasparini made two settings of the libretto, the second in 1719 and it was this latter setting which influenced Handel's Tamerlano. [see my review of the recording of Gasparini's 1719 Il Bajazet on Glossa] For Gasparini in 1719, Ippolito Zanella vastly expanded the role of Bajazet in the opera, and this was taken over by Handel. By contrast, Vivaldi's 1735 opera relies on the original 1711 libretto, so […]
2020-01-10 10:23:57
The music around him: a look at Mozart as he writes Mitridate, Re di Ponto in The Mozartists '1770 - a retrospective' at Wigmore Hall
[…] Mozartists will be exploring this theme at greater length at their Mozart in Italy festival at the Cadogan Hall on 6 to 8 March 2020, when they will be performing excerpts from works Mozart would have heard during his Italian sojourn including Jommelli's Armida abbandonata, reckoned to be a big influence on Mitridate, and also giving us the opportunity to compare and contrast arias from Mozart's Mitridate with the settings of the same texts from Gasparini's 1767 Mitridate, Re di Ponto.Elsewhere on this blog Handel Uncaged: chamber cantatas revealed in new context by Lawrence Zazzo on Inventa (★★★★½) - Cd review Haydn’s The Creation at the Bartók National Concert Hall (Müpa Budapest) by Concentus Musicus Wien and the Purcell Choir produced a memorable performance under Ádám Fischer (★★★★★) - concert review The other concertos: Mendelssohn's Double Concerto & Piano Concerto No. […]
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