Gaetano Latilla (1711-88) is pretty much a footnote, but after its premiere in 1738, this opera, La finta cameriera, was performed at one time or another throughout Europe for the next 20 years. It consists of 44 arias and acres of recitative (indeed, the Parisians objected to all the chatter in 1752). I normally hate these 18th century “intermezzo” operas about people disguised as either the lower classes or their own brothers, particularly because in between the acres of recitative there usually are simple-to-sing, “flavorful” arias. This work, however, is different: many of the arias are very showy and difficult, and require true virtuoso singing. I’ll spare you the plot–it really is one of those commedia dell’arte things that become less interesting the more you know about it–but fans of good singing (and superb period instrument playing) will have plenty to admire here.
Conductor Antonio Florio leads his La Cappella de’ Turchini with fabulous energy, and both instrumentalists and singers embellish their music tastefully and entertainingly. The sharp “quack” of the oboe and the “splat” of the horns add great spice and the strings attack ferociously. The singers occasionally ham it up a bit, in particular baritone Giuseppe Naviglio in the comic role of a young roué, but all of them navigate around their difficult music well and perform the opera as if it were a masterpiece. Indeed, the recitatives do go on and on (almost 15 of the first act’s 50 minutes, for example), but it’s all delivered with real dramatic thrust, and besides that, each has its own track, so after the first listen through I began to skip them entirely. Particularly good in the cast are Roberta Invernizzi and Maria Ercolano, although the basses, with their fine patter arias, and character tenors Stefano Di Fraia and Giuseppe di Vittorio (as a female gardener) are delightful too. This rarity is worth hearing–you won’t find much depth, but it’s amazing how much very good music there still is out there, waiting to be re-discovered. Thanks, Opus 111 (stupid plot notwithstanding).
