Hasse: Marc’ Antonio e Cleopatra
Soloists
Le Musiche Nove
Claudio Osele
This was a great find. I knew the name but I had never heard any of his music. Hasse was German but spent much of his earlier life in Italy. This is an early work and is a really good example of the Italian opera style. Indeed I thought that it was of a quality which compared with Handel at his very best. There is great variety here in melodic invention and dramatic with some striking passages of accompanied recitative. Some of the arias were spectacular in particularly a long aria for Cleopatra near the beginning of Act 2. There wasn’t a weak moment in the score.
Hasse lived at a transitional period in operatic history. By the time of his death (1783) he was in the world of Gluck and Mozart and it seems that he felt that he was something of a fish out of water. I’d be interested to hear some of his later music to see how his style developed.
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