Editorial Reviews

The legend of Orfeo was the subject of at least five operas, including Monteverdi's masterpiece "La Favola d'Orfeo," before the Roman composer Stefano Landi wrote his version in 1619. Unlike the earlier operas, Landi's focuses exclusively of the events following Orfeo's failed attempt to rescue Eurydice, and even though he is torn apart by the furious Maenads, the opera has a happy ending when he is freed from Hades and restored to his divine status as the son of Apollo. In the program notes for this fine recording of the opera, Jean-François Lattarico suggests that Landi's work, which certainly has the first overtly comic elements in any surviving opera, may also have been a parody of the genre, which had been introduced barely two decades earlier. This performance plays up the humorous and ridiculous aspects of the score, making it easy to grant Lattarico his point; the Frenzied Maenads preparing to dismember Orfeo use exaggeratedly hag-like voices that make it hard to take them too seriously. It's certainly a lively performance, and even though Landi may not have had Monteverdi's melodic gifts and harmonic creativity, it's clear he knew how to write dramatically compelling music. While not as musically varied and skillfully structured as his masterpiece "Il Sant'Alessio," written in 1632, "La morte d'Orfeo" is a satisfying example of very early opera, and Landi's work deserves the attention of modern audiences. The score has a number of memorable moments, particularly the ensembles; Landi was a master of the early Baroque madrigal. The performance, by the French ensemble Akadêmia led by Françoise Lasserre, is beautifully realized, with understated but striking instrumentation and vocal performances of unusual purity and intensity. All the soloists shine, but Cyril Auvity, Guillemette Laurens, Jan van Elsacker, Aurore Bucher, and Vincent Lesage stand out for the expressivity and special gleam of their singing. Zig Zag's sound is sparklingly clean, but there is little attempt to create a sense of theatrical space, so the spatial effect is more like that of an oratorio than of an opera. Stephen Eddins, All Music Guide

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