Anna Caterina Antonacci: Era la notte

This is an intriguing recording, and Anna Caterina Antonacci is an intriguing singer. Hers is a dark, and exquisitely expressive soprano voice aptly used in story telling.

Tracks:
1. Monteverdi: Lamento d'Arianna
2. Strozzi: Lamento: Lagrime mie
3. Giramo: Lamento della pazza
4. Monteverdi: Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda

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This CD contains the program of Antonacci’s themed recital solo concert, produced by Juliette Deschamps, who also writes the nostalgia-filled booklet purportedly presenting this recital as sonic portrayal of different aspects of love. I’m not sure that it is everything she says it is, but that takes nothing away from the quality of Antonacci’s performance.

The recital opens with Monteverdi’s vocal lament of Arianna. The story is well known to opera fans and enthusiasts of ancient Greek mythology, concerning the abandonment of Arianna (or Ariadne) by Tesseo (Theseus) on the island of Naxos after having helped him to escape the famous labyrinth after his encounter with the minotaur. There really aren’t many singers who can bring this unfortunate character to life as vividly as Antonacci does in this recording. She is as convincingly wounded as she is angry and desperate. It is wonderful to hear another singer who isn’t afraid of using many vocal colors to make the same repeated phrase means different thing each time she sings it, painting a gripping portrait of an abandoned lover who starts out in despair and ends in total disillusionment.

Barbara Strozzi’s Lagrime mie, and Pietro Antonio Giramo’s Lamento della pazza are unknown to me until now. ‘Lagrime mie’ is another mournful lament of a young man for his beloved Lidia, who is imprisoned by her father for having shown interest in him(the singer). A lover who grieves helplessly at the suffering of his significant other.... which quite logically enough leads in to Giramo’s ‘Lamento della pazza’, a song of a woman driven insane by love. It’s fast virtuoso tempo is a welcoming change from the rather depressing effects of the previous numbers. Insanity oozing out of the stereo in every melodic twist and dynamic shifts of this 9 minutes vocalization of utter madness. Even the lyric is disjointed.... and so the singer successfully splits herself into multiple personalities just in time for the final track, where she sings three different characters of different sexes!

Monteverdi’s marathon cantata (18:18 minutes) Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is a tour de force only the most accomplished of singing dramatists should attempt. It is adapted from an epic poem by Torquato Tasso about the battle between the crusading knight, Tancredi, and the Saracenian female warrior, Clorinda... with passages by an observing narrator (all sung by Antonacci, of course). Tancredi doesn’t realizes that he is fighting a woman until he had delivered the fatal blow, and, kneeling to take the mask off the face of his dying opponent (who converts to Christianity right on the dot before expiring), receives a shock of his life! To portray three different characters in the same song believably is a tall order, but Antonacci is one of those rare singers whose ability to lighten and darken their vocal color serve very well for such an occasion. She is gripping from start to finish and actually haunts me for a few hours afterward each time I listen to this CD.

The soprano is accompanied by Baroque strings superbly conducted by Federico Sardelli, who takes care to highlight her voice and emotion without drawing attention to his instrumentalists. Brava, bravo, and bravi!


This CD captures a magnificent feat of singing/story-telling, though those who are not familiar with classical cantatas might not enjoy it on the first (or the second) go. The final track alone is over 18 minutes long! For the lovers of classical singing and Baroque songs, I can’t recommend this disc highly enough. 'Il Combattimento' alone makes this a worthy buy for Monteverdi fans. It takes a great vocal dramatist to sustain a theme CD like this from the first note to the last. Anna Caterina Antonacci is definitely up to the challenge of these ancient haunters, but the question is 'are you up to these 7+ minutes songs?'

1 CD. Booklet contains a note on the compilation of this album in French and English. Printed libretto provided in Italian, French and English.

Anna Caterina Antonacci can also be found on the Opus Arte DVD of Berlioz's Les Troyens from a 2003 performance in Paris, and the Ermione DVD from the 1995 Glyndebourne Festival.

Recommended: Yes

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