Francesco Cavalli: L’Artemisia | Ardo, sospiro e Piango

Ardo, Sospiro e Piango from L’Artemisia, Act I Scene xviii (Venice, 1657) Francesco Cavalli (1602 - 1676) libretto by Nicolò Minato (1627 - 1698) One of Cavalli’s greatest laments, sung by Artemia in response to her unrequited love. L’Artemisia was one of several collaborations with librettist Nicolò Minato; together, they hoped to be able to depict interaction between characters with as realistic a fluidity as possible. The result was, in the case of L’Artemisia, an opera centred on fluid, highly emotive and dramatic recitative, moving in and out of brief arioso and duet, and with only a handful of ’showstopper’ arias, of which Ardo, Sospiro e Piango is the longest. This aria is often mistakenly described as being from Cavalli’s better-known opera La Calisto, thanks to Raymond Leppard’s inclusion of it in his revival for Glyndebourne in 1970. Musica Antica Rotherhithe Camilla Seale, mezzo-soprano Flora F