La Bella Piu Bella: Songs from Early Baroque Italy

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LA BELLA PIÙ BELLA • Roberta Invernizzi (s); Craig Marchitelli (archlute, thb) • GLOSSA 922902 (77:11 Text and Translation) ROMANO Strana armonia d’amore. FERRARI Son...


LA BELLA PIÙ BELLA • Roberta Invernizzi (s); Craig Marchitelli (archlute, thb) • GLOSSA 922902 (77:11 Text and Translation)


ROMANO Strana armonia d’amore. FERRARI Son ruinato, appassionato. PICCININI Toccata V. Aria di Sarabanda. CACCINI Dolcissimo sospiro. Dalla porta d’Oriente. Torna, deh torna. KAPSBERGER Ciaccona. Toccata VI. Ninna nanna. ROSSI La bella più bella. A qual dardo. CARISSIMI Piangete, aure, piangete. STROZZI Udite amanti. Mi fa rider la speranza. CASTALDI Tasteggio soave. MERULA Folle è ben che si crede. D’INDIA Cruda Amarilli. Intenerite voi, lagrime mie. MONTEVERDI Ecco di dolci raggi. Eri già tutta mia. Voglio di vita uscir


My first encounter with soprano Roberta Invernizzi was on a Glossa compilation of Italian Baroque music, made about 12 years ago, that was generally a feature for tenor Pini de Vittorio. If anything, her powers of expression—and her ability to manipulate the voice like an instrument—have only grown better and more assured since then. She is, literally, a jaw-dropping Baroque soprano. Quick turns, vocal slurs, “spotted flute” technique, trills, all are in her vocal arsenal, and she is also an expressive singer with emotion to spare. Indeed, the more I hear her the more I like her; she can vary her timbre, add or subtract vibrato at will, and completely draw you in to the intensity of her interpretations. She is like Nella Anfuso (from her prime, the 1980s) with a more attractive timbre.


It also doesn’t hurt that most of this music is simply wonderful, a cross between classical Baroque and Italian folk or popular music of its time. There isn’t a bad track on the disc, and especially in a piece like Caccini’s Dalla porta d’Oriente, with its infectious tune and foot-stomping rhythm, both Invernizzi and archlutist Marchitelli (who, by the way, is also an excellent musician) get into the music so well that you can’t help but smile. I should point out, for those who don’t know, that the toccatas, chaconne, Tasteggio soave, and Aria di Sarabanda on this disc are instrumentals featuring only Marchitelli’s playing.


What is especially gratifying in listening to Invernizzi is that she lavishes the same focus and energy on each and every song in this collection, no matter how humble or exalted it may be. When the music deepens, for instance in Tarquinio Merula’s eloquent song Folle è ben che si crede or the three Monteverdi pieces that end this disc, so does Invernizzi’s artistry. As I said at the outset of this review, she is just plain stunning from start to finish.


One could go on and on in praise of this magnificent singer. Let me just opine that she is the sine qua non of Baroque sopranos and leave it at that.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley


Product Description:

  • Release Date: February 25, 2014


  • UPC: 8424562229020


  • Catalog Number: GCD922902


  • Label: Glossa


  • Number of Discs: 1


  • Composer: Alessandro Piccinini, Barbara Strozzi, Bellerofonte Castaldi, Benedetto Ferrari, Claudio Monteverdi, Giacomo Carissimi, Giovanni Kapsberger, Giulio Caccini, Giulio Romano, Luigi Rossi, Sigismondo D'India, Tarquinio Merula


  • Performer: Craig Marchitelli, Roberta Invernizzi