This recording, made in the late '80s, was among those that opened up the monodic style -- the virtuoso recitative-like vocal, accompanied by a small continuo group, that helped pave the way for opera -- to an understanding beyond the world of specialists. Although other singers have come along and, to borrow an expression from the bluegrass world, put a little more mustard on the music in the interim, these performances by soprano Catherine Bott have held up well in many respects. The chief difficulty lies in the ...
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This recording, made in the late '80s, was among those that opened up the monodic style -- the virtuoso recitative-like vocal, accompanied by a small continuo group, that helped pave the way for opera -- to an understanding beyond the world of specialists. Although other singers have come along and, to borrow an expression from the bluegrass world, put a little more mustard on the music in the interim, these performances by soprano Catherine Bott have held up well in many respects. The chief difficulty lies in the ornamentation, which in many cases (although not in that of Giulio Caccini, the nominal creator of opera) is left to the performer to improvise -- the quick little flips and the characteristic repetitions of a single note aren't easy for conventionally trained singers, and Bott's execution is graceful, natural, and pleasant to listen to. The disc's best feature is the variety of the program -- an hour of monody can certainly drag, but not here. Monody is sometimes thought of as having...
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