The fame of his Four Seasons has long hindered Vivaldi's recognition as an opera composer. Many of his opera scores have been left untouched on the shelves of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin. Fortunately, those days are over and in the Tesori del Piemonte series all these manuscripts are taken out for recording. Atenaide was composed in 1728 for a theater in Florence. The libretto was written by
… Zeno, a poet with whom Vivaldi was not very interested, but his client probably left him no choice. The work was not a great success, perhaps due to a change in taste: the Venetian opera with its complicated dramatic developments began to lose ground to a new opera form from Naples in a gallant and poetic style. Atenaide is not a Vivaldi masterpiece, but with a good cast of singers there is still a lot to enjoy. And that cast is there: with Sandrine Pieau, Vivica Genaux, Romina Basso and Paul Agnew. (CP)more
