Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Leo: L'Ambizione Delusa

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

The origins of the Italian opera buffa can be traced back to Naples in the second quarter of the 18th century. Three Neapolitan opera composers of that period essentially created the genre: Leonardo Vinci, Giovanni Batista Pergolesi and Leonardo Leo (1694-1744). Pergolesi's works, especially the comic intermezzo La Serva Padrona (1733), are known about, but the comic operas of Vinci and Leo have only recently been rediscovered, revived onstage and subsequently recorded.

I was introduced to the comic operas of Leonardo Leo through the 1995 Nuova Era recording of Amor Vuol Sofferenza ("Love Requires Suffering," 1739), made live in performance at the 1994 Festival della Valle d'Itria. I have broadcast that recording twice. Next came Leo's L'Alidoro (1741), the world premiere recording of which was released in 2010 through the Italian Dynamic label. I broadcast L'Alidoro on Sunday, August 7, 2011.

Now along comes Leo's L'Ambizione Delusa ("The Frustrated Ambition" 1740), also presumably in its world premiere recording for Dynamic. This baroque Commedia Pastorale in three acts you might think of as a Neapolitan version of "The Beverly Hillbillies." Domestics of peasant stock from the neighboring countryside have struck it rich.They move out of the city and into a country estate, where they act out their silly fantasies of what the wealthy upper crust are like. The silliness only ends when their mansion burns to the ground.

L'Ambizione Delusa was recorded live in performance in 2013 at the Martina Franca Festival. Antonio Greco directs the Orchestra ICO of Magna Grecia of Taranto (at the Southern tip of Italy). Writing for Fanfare magazine (Nov/Dec, 2015 issue), reviewer Jerry Dubins says this Dynamic release "...is not just for 18th century opera specialists; it's enjoyable all around and recommended to everyone."