Francesco Cavalli – “Sospiri Di Foco” – Aria for Menelao from “Elena” (1659) – I Act III Scene.<\/p>\n
Luca Casagrande – Orion Music Int. Studio Anthology “Sospiri Di Foco – Baroque Opera And Chambers Arias” C-LC046 – \u2117 2026
\nRecorded at the Orion Music Int. Studios – Berlin (Germany)
\nMix and mastering at the Union Recording Studios – Los Angeles (California – US)
\n\u00a9 Luca Casagrande<\/p>\n
Baritone – Luca Casagrande
\nOrchestra – Scarlatti Camera Ensemble<\/p>\n
Cover – Luca Casagrande – Michele Bommassar
\nPainting – Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) – 1597 – “The Musicians” – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
\n–
\n“Sospiri Di Foco”
\nLyrics by Giovanni Faustini (1615 – 1651) and Nicol\u00f2 Minato (1627 – 1698)
\nMusic by Francesco Cavalli (1602 – 1676)<\/p>\n
Sospiri di foco,
\nChe l’aure inflammate,
\nLeggeri volate
\nIntorno al mio bene.
\nE l’aspre mie pene
\nNarrategli un poco.
\nSospiri, sospiri di foco,
\nSospiri, sospiri di foco!<\/p>\n
Aurette leggere,
\nChe udite il mio duolo,
\nPortatevi a volo
\nAl sen di chi adoro,
\nE dite ch’io moro
\nIn doglie severe,
\nAurette, aurette leggere,
\naurette, aurette leggere.<\/p>\n
“‘Elena’ is a 1659 dramma per musica in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It is set to a libretto initiated by Giovanni Faustini (who died in 1651) and completed by Nicol\u00f2 Minato, and it was first performed in Venice at the Teatro San Cassiano (the dedication is 26 December 1659). Elena was revived in 1661 in Palermo but then not heard again until 2013, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.”
\nMenelaus, in the Cavalli’s melodram, is a young Achaean prince, in love with the protagonist, Helen, a woman of rare beauty and, in Homer, the cause of the Trojan War. Menelaus, to get closer to Helen, dresses as a woman to introduce himself to serving her by pretending to be an Amazon. After a thousand events, both comical and tragic, Menelaus reveals his identity and marries Helen.
\nThe role of Menelaus originally seems to have been entrusted to a female voice, but, by its very nature, it can also be entrusted to a male voice, which is sufficiently “light”.<\/p>\n