Leonardo Garcia Alarcon - Michelangelo Falvetti: Il Diluvio Universale (2011)

Leonardo Garcia Alarcon's 2011 recording of Michelangelo Falvetti's 1682 oratorio Il Diluvio Universale is a reminder, if one were needed, that there are untold treasures of Baroque repertoire waiting to be discovered. The story of The Flood is told economically, but with enough peculiar diversions from the Biblical story to keep listeners on their toes about what's going to happen next. There are personifications of Divine Justice, Human Nature, Water, Fire, Land, and Death (a smugly self-satisfied character who sings a triumphant, gleeful little gigue once humanity has been wiped out). This is the first recording of any work by Falvetti and it's a knock-out. Having performers like Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Cappella Mediterranea, and Choeur de Chambre de Namur in your corner perhaps gives any composer a hand up, but the exceptional quality of the score itself is also easy to discern. The work defies the conventions of its times and often astonishes with its originality and the richness of its inventiveness. Its many delightful quirks begin when Divine Justice, bringing charges against Mankind for its many failings, peremptorily breaks into the overture, bringing it to a grinding, premature halt. For all its strangeness, it's remarkably astute dramatically, and is typical of Falvetti's gift for odd but wonderfully apt musical gestures. Another moment: when the shrieking multitudes are being swept away by the deluge, they are engulfed mid-word, leaving silence except for the rushing of the wind. The score is also full of moments of breathtaking loveliness. Noah's duets with his wife, "Il Gran Dio di pieta," "Motor Divino," and "Placati Dio di bonta," sung radiantly by tenor Fernando Guimaraes and soprano Mariana Flores, are as achingly poignant and sumptuous as anything out of Cavalli, perhaps even Monteverdi. Alarcon and his orchestral, choral, and vocal forces deliver virtuoso performances that quiver with musical vibrancy and dramatic conviction. The soloists are consistently superb; besides Guimaraes and Flores, contralto Evelyn Ramirez Munoz and sopranos Magali Arnault and Caroline Weynants are standouts. Arnault delivers what can only be described as a jaw-dropping coloratura performance as Water in "Le nubi funeste," and then the choir joins in singing similar material with similar facility; it's simply astonishing. Complementing the standard instrumental ensemble, Iranian percussionist Keyvan Chemirani uses Arabic folk instruments that would have been familiar in countries around the Mediterranean basin to provide color and rhythmic energy. The sound of the Ambronay CD is clean, detailed, and warmly present. Il Diluvio Universale is a quirky piece and is not likely to supplant Messiah in popularity, but it deserves the attention of anyone who loves the byways of the Baroque and ought to leave scholars scurrying in search of other Falvetti scores. Highly recommended. -- Stephen Eddins