Emanuela Galli - Handel, G.F.: Italian Cantatas, Vol. 2 - Hwv 79, 105, 142, 171, 173 (2007)

In the autumn of last year Fabio Bonizzoni and La Risonanza embarked on a journey taking a fresh look – musicologically as well as musically – at the chamber cantatas to Italian texts and with instrumental accompaniment composed by Georg Frideric Handel during his stay in Italy. Where the first release on Glossa focused on works associated with Cardinal Pamphili in Rome, this new recording contains pieces – including the dramatic cantata Armida abbandonata and Handel’s ‘own’ Hunt Cantata – originating in the establishment of the Marquis Ruspoli and written for sopranos such asMargherita Durastante and Vittoria Tarquini.

Here it is the Milanese soprano Emanuela Galli who takes centre stage (and she also has taken on the role of Eurydice in Glossa’s recent recording of Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo directed by Claudio Cavina). Roberta Invernizzi returns, joining forces with Galli, for Diana cacciatrice. Making use of recent research the booklet notes – written on this occasion by Karl Boehmer – help to illuminate for us Handel’s sojourn in Italy in 1707 and the origins of the five cantatas recorded here.