Too often confused by journalists or distracted music lovers with the Italian Renaissance genius, Leonardo Vinci was an eighteenth-century Neapolitan Baroque composer whose reputation stems mainly from his thirty-seven operas composed for the great castrates of his time and performed at the Royal Chapel of Naples where he was the successor to Alessandro Scarlatti. After his album devoted to a selection of arias by Handel, Argentine countertenor Franco Fagioli chose a dozen arias from Leonardo Vinci’s operas, more than half of which are world premieres. These include voluptuous and virtuosic arias from Il trionfo di Camilla, Gismondo, re di Polonia, L’Ernelinda, Alessandro nell’Indie and Medo.
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Vinci’s operas were often tailor-made for the “stars” of an era that worshipped singers, just as it was done much later for film actors. The arias in Il trionfo di Camilla were originally composed for the prima donna Faustina Bordoni and those in Medo for the illustrious castrato Farinelli.
The magnificent pastoral aria “Quell’usignolo ch’è innamorato de Gismondo” evokes a nightingale song with two compulsory recorders. This music is full of life and dramatic expression, reborn here with participation of il pomo d'oro ensemble, headed with virtuosity by its concertmaster, the Bulgarian violinist Zefira Valova. © François Hudry/Qobuz