Agitata da due venti (Vivaldi) Blandine Staskiewicz

Agitata da due venti
from Griselda by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

from the recording Tempesta: Opera arias by Handel & Vivaldi
Blandine Staskiewicz, mezzo-soprano with Les Ambassadeurs
Alexis Kossenko, conductor

The opera Griselda was first performed in Venice at the Teatro San Samuele on May 18, 1735.

Agitata da due venti,
freme l’onda in mar turbato,
e’l nocchiero spaventato,
già s’aspetta a naufragar.

Dal dovere e da l’amore
combattuto, questo core
non resiste e par che ceda
e comminci a desperar.

Shaken by two winds,
the wave trembles on the troubled sea,
and the alarmed steersman
suspects an approaching shipwreck.

This heart, torn between
duty and love,
no longer resists; it seems to give way,
and begins to lose hope.

"Vivaldi enthusiastically explored the arie di tempesta, which regularly made appearances in his operas, in some cases more than once within the same work. Two outstanding examples are 'Agitata da due venti' and 'Siam navi all’onde algenti' from, respectively, the operas Griselda and L’Olimpiade. The first aria is one of the most spectacular ever to have been written by Vivaldi, calling on an exaggerated vocal virtuosity – parallel to what Neapolitan composers had been employing for some years – with staggering coloraturas and broad intervallic leaps. In his musical depiction of Costanza’s state of mind, torn between love and duty, Vivaldi not only draws explicitly on the image – provided in the text – of the little boat being battered by two opposing winds, but seems even to establish connections between the desires of human emotions and the violence unleashed by the natural phenomenon. Unlike the Neapolitan composers of the time, Vivaldi does not yield to the predominance of the voice, instead conferring upon the instrumental part a role which goes much further than providing simple support. Singer and orchestra thus become involved in a single more wide-ranging sound portrait, as is apparent in the extensive descriptive fresco that is 'Siam navi all’onde algenti'.” [from the liner notes by Stefano Russomanno]

From the CD available from Glossa:
http://www.glossamusic.com/glossa/ref...

Video features the art of Ukrainian paper artist Asya Kozina:
http://asyakozina-art.com/