Jommelli: Armida abbandonata (1770)

Ewa Malas-Godlewsak........Armida, Soprano
Claire Brua................Rinaldo, Mezzosoprano
Gilles Ragon..........................Tancredi, Tenor
Véronica Gens....................Erminia, Soprano
Laura Polverelli.....Rambaldo, Mezzosoprano
Patricia Petibon....................Ubaldo, Soprano
Cécile Perrin............................Dano, Soprano

Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset

[Flac & Scans]

A wonderful recording of an opera that perhaps influenced MozartThe first performance of Armida abbandonata was attended by the 14-year-old Mozart, who wrote to his sister that it was 'beautiful, but too serious and old-fashioned for the theatre'. That tells us something about the taste of the Neapolitan audience, which didn't care for the richness and subtlety of the music.And the music is superb. Jommelli was born in 1714 and, like Gluck, an exact contemporary, he moved away from the conventions of Metastasian opera seria to a more flexible style that included choruses and ballets in accordance with the French taste of his ducal employer at the Wikttemburg court. His accompanied recitatives are particularly fine, as I suggested in my review of Gluck's Paride ed Elena (8/05) which was premiered five months after Armida abbandonata, in November 1770. One example comes in Act 2: the recitative begins with a descending chromatic phrase in the second violins and includes a weeping figure that is incorporated into the following aria.Ewa Malas-Godlewska, so touching there, rages impressively in 'Odo, furor, dispetto' ('Hatred, fury, spite'): its staccato scales anticipate Elettra's outburst in ldomeneo. That Mozart owed a debt to Jommelli is also suggested by a florid metaphor aria for Tancredi that looks ahead to Idomeneo's 'Fuor del mar'; and although Erminia is no servant, her second aria might well put the listener in mind of Despina in Cosi fan tutte. Gilles Ragon and Veronique Gens are but two in a matchless cast from the rest of which there is space to single out only the gloriously rich-toned Laura Polverelli. Christophe Rousset conducts his fine musicians in a gripping, well paced performance. In its first incarnation this wonderful recording soon disappeared from the catalogue. I urge you to buy it now, in case it vanishes again.Richard Lawrence