Falvetti's Nabucco: Afternoon on 3 1st Jume

[doversoul1]

Jonathan Swain presents a rare performance of the oratorio Nabucco by Michelangelo Falvetti from last year's Wallonie Festival in Brussels. Falvetti was born in 1642 in Palermo. He had a successful career in Messina, and was appointed maestro di cappella at the cathedral there in 1682. The conductor Leonardo Garcia Alarcón has championed this little-known composer, and brings out the unusual colours in this rare work.

Namur Chamber Chorus
Cappella Mediterranea
Leonardo García Alarcón

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08rgpd6

I have a vague memory of this being broadcast on R3 awhile back, and I think his Il Diluvio Universale was also broadcast.

Concerts in full:
Nabucco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSK6Nq2Tv_8

Il Diluvio Universale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=214VRk-wVQM

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I greatly enjoyed this - but how close it was to a representation of the work as it was heard in the 17th Century I'm not at all sure. The first part, with the recorders and mandolins, kept bringing Mike Oldfield's Hergest Ridge to my mind!

But the vigour and the liveliness of the Music and its performance, I found utterly entrancing - highly recommended; I think even those Forumistas who do not generally "take" to Baroque Opera or Oratorio will find plenty to enjoy and much to delight.