Lucía Caihuela, José Antonio Montaño, & La Madrileña: E-Motion
Eudora Records

E-Motion presents ravishing renditions of obscure works from the Baroque operatic repertoire by mezzosoprano Lucía Caihuela and the period-instrument orchestra La Madrileña under the direction of Spanish conductor José Antonio Montaño. What might at first glance seem a curious album title turns out to be apt indeed for the wealth of emotion that emanates from these performances. The album's castrato arias derive from eighteenth-century “opera seria,” the term denoting a kind of musical drama focused on (as described by Álvaro Torrente in liner notes) the “inner conflicts of elevated characters—monarchs or classical heroes—set in distant places and times.” These operas were designed to alternate between recitatives and arias and thus function as vehicles for intense emotional expression. Within these musical dramas, the recitative centred on action, which prompted an appropriate emotional response in the aria and for the singer's soul to be laid bare before a rapt audience.

The composers featured are Johann Adolph Hasse, Pietro A. Guglielmi, Luigi Gatti, Niccolò Jommelli, Egidio Duni, and Leonardo Vinci, with all of the arias set to librettos by Pietro Metastasio. Composers repeatedly turned (and returned) to his librettos, so much so that audiences of the time weren't held in suspense as they already knew the libretto. Instead, their focus was on how the composer would translate the emotional content into musical form and how the singer would creatively render the vocal aspect. It's interesting to note that material from Demofoonte, one of Metastasio's most popular librettos (over 100 musical settings following its 1733 premiere, apparently), is represented on E-Motion four times, in each case by a different composer. Two glorious sinfonias and seven vocal works compose the fifty-seven-minute recording.

Torrente provides in-depth background to each piece, with details relating to the opera's characters and conflicts establishing context. Hasse's radiant “Sinfonia” introduces the release with a magnificent scene-setter executed with high-energy precision by La Madrileña, the commanding instrumental a sterling reminder that the orchestra is as pivotal to the album's impact as Caihuela. Following “Sinfonia” is Guglielmi's “Sperai vicino il lido,” the ensemble's strings singing as sweetly in this context as in the opener. Caihuela impresses immediately for the control of her pitch-perfect delivery, her poise, and her virtuosic ability to essay the challenging acrobatics of the vocal part. La Madrileña shows itself to be her attentive and responsive partner as she deftly navigates the aria's many emotional tempests and its oscillations between fast and slow passages. The sweetness of romantic ardour pervades Gatti's “Se possono tanto,” with a luminous Caihuela gliding gracefully alongside the orchestra's stately march. Hasse's “Barbaro non comprendo,” by comparison, charges forth with urgency, the mezzosoprano as capable of communicating indignation as amour.

Midway through the album, the second sinfonia, this time a rhapsodic one from Jommelli, provides a pleasing rest-stop before the next set of vocal performances begins. Duni's “Misero pargoletto” instantly arrests for its solo flute intro and captivates even more when Caihuela enters to heartrendingly articulate the aria's sorrow (Torrente describes it as “probably the most dramatic moment in the entire history of opera seria” for dealing with an act of incest and contemplating the horrible consequences to follow from it). E-Motion is rounded out by Vinci's plaintive “Se vuoi ch'io mora, mio dolce amore,” originally sung by the castrato Farfallino and delivered exquisitely by Caihuela, and the third of three Jommelli pieces, “Vedrai con tuo periglio.” The latter encapsulates everything that makes the release special, from the splendour of the performance to the harmonic brilliance of the music.

June 2026