What a depressing recital. Whether she’s coping with the cruelty of desire in S’e Legge d’amore (If it is Love’s law), suffering betrayal in Anima perfida (Perfidious soul), lamenting perpetual unrequited love in Ha, que l’absence (Ah, what suffering there is in absence), exclaiming how life is killing her in Habbi pieta di me (Have pity), or simply considering suicide in the final aria Mi basta così (I have had enough!)–no matter what role soprano Maria Jonas portrays, happiness (not to mention hope) never is a foregone conclusion. But then, after having been born into Venetian aristocracy, marrying up only to be betrayed by her husband, and then having to abandon her three children when she fled for France, composer Antonia Bembo (c. 1670-17?) didn’t exactly live a life of assured contentment or stability.
The most compelling work offered is the program’s centerpiece, Lamento della Vergine: D’omnipotente Padre (The virgin’s lament: Almighty Father), if only because, unlike the bulk of the recital, where Jonas’ delivery rarely exceeds the mournful and the tempos remain ominously slow, here we get some action. In the intensely dramatic arias Che fai, che tenti? (What are you doing, how dare you?), Staccato del ramo (Plucked from the branch), and Larva dileguati (Coward be gone!) Jonas and her colleagues offer fiery, captivating performances of works more stylistically akin to Bembo’s Italian homeland than to France, where (like every other selection offered) she composed the collection from which the songs here are drawn.
As usual, Alpha’s sound, notes, and presentation are top-notch. And incidentally, given the consistently dark nature of the material, the irony implicit in the decision to adorn the digipac cover with a reproduction of a painting of a bowl of cherries is wonderfully sly. Recommended primarily to lamentation enthusiasts and women-composer completists.
