Early Music Review (December 2008)

This is a rarity indeed. John Byrom's little rhyme comes to mind:
Some say, compar'd to Bononcini,
Than Mynheer Handel's but a ninny.
Others aver that he to Handel
Is scarcely fit ti hold a candle.
Strange all this diff'rence should be
Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee.
I was expecting something competent but lacking the dramatic power of Handel, but I was agreeably surprised by the intensity of this work, albeit scored for minimal forces of just strings with the four soloists and no chorus. There are some real gems here. Nicholas' 'M'incateni, e se mi sciogli' (tr. 19) is a stunning aria, bringing to mind a comparison with Handel's famous 'Lascia ch'io pianga' from Rinaldo, and Clizio's aria 'Anche il cielo' (tr. 23) has, by contrast, all the drama of many a Handel operatic aria. It is perhaps unfair, though, to compare this work composed in 1693 (Bononcini was Handel's senior by 15 years) with Handel's operatic output of sope 18 years later. Indeed, many of the da capo arias bear all the hallmarks of the 17th century Italian opera, with their continuo themes and only a few having the full string accompaniment. The work, nevertheless, is full of word-painting, with clear references to buzzing bees, fire's angry flashes, sparkling stars and rocking waves, all achieved with simple string writing.
The story is straightforward: Stampiglia's libretto tells the leave-taking of Nicholas from his parents Johanna and Epiphanes, aided by his companion Clizio. The soloists, with their ornamented da capos, are stylish, the period instrument performance is impeccable, and the booklet particularly informative, complemented by an impressive CD case. Compared with Alessandro Scarlatti's Il Martirio di Santa Cecilia which I reviewed in the last issue of EMR, the Bononcini is a much more interesting work, and ont to which I will happily return.

Ian Graham Jones