Theater without drama

Even the venerable Archiv Produktion label has fallen into the fashion of choosing images for its CD covers that have absolutely no connection to the musical content. On the first recording of a serenade by the Viennese court conductor Antonio Caldara, we admire the portrait of a masked young lady whose face and décolleté are covered with colorful butterflies. The work offers much that could fire the imagination of listeners and readers.

Caldara wrote La concordia de' pianeti 1723 as a congratulatory and homage gift for Empress Elisabeth, who was pregnant at the time. The genre name is to be taken literally: The serenade was first performed in the open air - a ciel sereno. Although the libretto has the usual sequence of recitatives and da capo arias, the differences to an opera are relevant. There are four choruses instead of the usual operatic tutti in the finale; instead of a progressive plot, the various gods of the Greek Olympus sing in rotation to the imperial mother-to-be. The arias of the gods are set to music according to their different personalities; Mars, for example, sings with trumpet accompaniment (No. 28, Da mia tromba). Without tension, without a story, the whole thing could become boring. However, the music remains quite varied, often with a dance-like, never melancholy character.

Above all, the baroque orchestra La Cetra under Andrea Marcon provides a glittering musical experience. La Cetra is an important part of Basel's musical life, especially the annual production at Theater Basel. The musicians are also highly regarded abroad; Caldara's Serenade was performed and recorded in Dortmund in January 2014. The orchestra's playing is outstanding: energetic, precise and a joy to listen to. The singers are able to remain at this level overall. The lightness and taste in the ornamentation of Carlos Mena (Mars), for example in his aria Non v'è bella che non creda (No. 12). The voice of Franco Fagioli (Apollo) is very impressive, but a somewhat clearer pronunciation would certainly not do any harm (No. 13, So ch'io dal suolo alzai).

The booklet provides all the information about the work and the composer that one could wish for when getting to know the work for the first time; the libretto is printed in four languages. Unfortunately, there is no room on the 52 pages for any pictures other than the faces of Antonio Caldara and Andrea Marcon.