Premiera 2025-3-0718th-century Venice is the ultimate setting for splendor—architectural, pictorial, theatrical, musical, and vocal. Venetian opera shines across Europe, combining dramatic intensity with the beauty of vocal lines. Just as Canaletto and Guardi capture every facet of La Serenissima in their panoramic paintings, composers seek to explore the full spectrum of human emotions through opera.
Returning to the recording scene, Sophie Junker invites us to discover these composers alongside Martyna Pastuszka, leading the {oh!} Orkiestra. Her brilliant and agile soprano flourishes in arias of fury and vengeance (Vivaldi and Lotti) as well as in the heartrending laments of an Iphigenia (Porta) or an Ariadne (Marcello). Meanwhile, Martyna Pastuszka’s violin leads one of the magnificent concertos from La Stravaganza (“The Extraordinary”)—a fitting subtitle for this program!
Works:
•Albinoni: Andromeda liberata, Parte prima: Si, rinforzi in te la spene (Cassiope)
• Caldara: Caio Marzio Coriolano, Act III Scene 7: Per combatter con lo sdegno (Claudia)
• Caldara: Temistocle, Act I Scene 6: Chi mai d'iniqua stella (Aspasia)
• Gasparini: Ambleto, Act II: Sì, ti sente l'alma mia (Ildegarde)
• Gasparini: Bajazet, Act I Scene 15: Vendetta sì, farò (Asteria)
• Lotti: Giove in Argo, Act II: Con fiamme, e con straggi (Iside)
• Marcello, B: Arianna, Parte seconda. Scene 2: Come mai puoi vedermi piangere (Arianna)
• Porta, G: Ifigenia in Aulide, Act III Scene 13: Madre diletta, abbracciami (Ifigenia)
• Vivaldi: Atenaide, RV 702, Act III Scene 7: Qual demone, qual furia (Eudossa)
• Vivaldi: La Silvia, RV 734, Act I Scene 14: Mio cor, s'io ti credessi (Nerina)
• Vivaldi: Ottone in villa, RV 729, Act II Scene 3: L'ombre, l'aure, e ancora il rio (Caio)
• Vivaldi: Violin Concerto, Op. 4 No. 4 in A minor, RV 357
• Vivaldi: Zeffiretti, che sussurrate, RV 749.21