La contadina

Description

Aged twenty-nine, Johann Adolph Hasse is on his first stay in Italy when he writes La Contadina in Naples. The music of the intermezzo, full of humor and character, met with such success that a total of thirty-eight productions have been recorded in the major opera houses in Europe between 1728 and 1769 - making La Contadina one of the undeniable "hits" of the 18th century. It is hard to conceive that such a work could have been composed at the same time as Bach's cantatas and passions, as its music seems to anticipate the classical style to come. The power of this work relies on a libretto full of humor (not devoid of eroticism...), on the extraordinary vitality of the recitatives, and on the extreme personalization of the arias, capable of captivating like on the first day the ears of today's listeners. Glossa and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis are pleased to be able to reissue, at the time of the full revaluation of prestigious Neapolitan composers, from Porpora to Vinci, from Mancini to Hasse, this exquisite recording featuring not only the voices of Graciela Oddone and Lorenzo Regazzo, but also great instrumentalists like Pablo Valetti, Amandine Beyer, Riccardo Minasi, and Attilio Cremonesi.