Pergolesi : Adriano in Siria. Comparato, Cirillo, Dantone, Garcia.

   in Early Music Today (Mar, 2012)
Ottavio Dantone considers Pergolesi as ‘the greatest Italian opera composer of the eighteenth century’ and this outstanding production from Iesi (Pergolesi’s birthplace) may leave you nodding in agreement. Composed in Naples in 1734 to a Metastasio libretto, Adriano in Siria is a typical opera seria tale of love, betrayal and the Roman Empire. Yet Pergolesi’s music transforms these cliches into arias of thrilling emotional intensity and extraordinary beauty, as in the burnished poignancy of ‘Prigioniera abbandonata’ or the enchanting ‘caged nightingale’ aria, ‘Lieto così tal volta’, originally written for star castrato Caffarelli. Dantone’s young soloists, relatively unknown, burn with conviction and sing superbly, with Lucia Cirillo, Annamaria Dell’Oste and Nicole Heaston …