Prima d'esservi infedele

Alessandro Scarlatti's entire cantata oeuvre encompasses more than 800 titles, but only a fraction of them contain two violin parts alongside the vocal line and continuo. From these, the Quartetto Vanvitelli offers us four unpublished cantatas in its fifth recording for Arcana (here supplemented with Lena Yokoyama as second violin): Works that are associated with the impressive Roman patronage of the 1690s and in particular with "La Giorgina" (as Angela Voglia was known). The celebrated soprano was first in the service of Christina van Zweden, then of the Spanish duke of Medinaceli, whose mistress she was both in Rome and at the vice-regal court of Naples. The singer entrusted with the task of bringing Giorgina's voice and allure back to life is Valeria La Grotta, a baroque specialist and outstanding interpreter of a repertoire that she has also investigated as a scholar, seeking out primary sources.