Vinci : Artaserse. Jaroussky, Fagioli, Cencic, Fasolis.

   in Opera Now (Jul, 2014)
After great success on CD and in Silviu Purcarete’s staging at Nancy, conductor Diego Fasolis brings his five countertenors to DVD. It’s clearly a brilliant performance – I cannot warm much to Vinci’s music, though he is a decent melodist – with Fasolis and the Concerto Koln playing with furious energy and plenty of nice titivation in continuo and scoring, while the singing is almost uniformly astonishing. But the film – made with great attention to detail – puts way too much focus on the generic mincing and fey gesturing of the overly stylised staging, whose campery gets wearisome; and close-ups of the singers don’t always do them many favours. The …