Coloratura mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg, being hailed as the new “Swedish Nightingale,” a sobriquet formerly given to Jenny Lind, made a rare local appearance on February 27, when she dazzled us at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, singing eight bravura arias, almost all written for such legendary castrati as Francesco Bernardi AKA Senesino, Giovanni Carestini, and Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, better known known as Farinelli, with the 16-piece Venice Baroque Orchestra, led by concertmaster Gianpiero Zanocco. Four concerti by Antonio Vivaldi introduced and separated Hallenberg’s arias.
Two turbulent allegro movements bracketed a plaintive andante in Vivaldi’s Sinfonia in B minor for Strings and Continuo, RV (Ryom-Verzeichnis) 168, which served as the evening’s spirited overture. Hallenberg welcomed the sunny aftermath of a storm, in dulcet, velvety, and fluid tone, in “Dopo l’orrore,” from Georg Frideric Handel and Nicola Francesco Haym’s “Ottone,” ornamenting the repeat of the A section with delicacy, brightness, and refinement. In Pietro Torri’s “Quando il flebile usignolo,” from “Ippolito,” with seven-player, chamber accompaniment, Hallenberg quietly and seamlessly evoked the nightingale, in rich sound and long-breathed lines.
The full complement returned to the stage for Vivaldi’s Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, Strings, and Continuo, RV 514, featuring Maestro Zanocco and Mauro Spinazzè, playing in perfect harmony. Vivaldi’s dark and dramatic “Gelido in ogni vena,” from “Farnace,” with libretto by Antonio Maria Lucchini, inspired Hallenberg’s most plangent, but always flexible, sound, the aria capped with her fierce and wide-ranging cadenza, from a low growl to a high outburst. The singer sounded the alarm, in Latin, in most urgent fioriture, in Vivaldi and librettist Giacomo Cassetti’s “Armatae face et anguibus,” from the oratorio “Juditha triumphans.”
In between the tempestuous allegro con moto first movement and allegro third movement of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Major for Strings and Continuo, RV 121, the slow, contrasting adagio prominently showcased the playing of lutenist Ivano Zanenghi. In the ensuing Handel arias, Hallenberg gave us furious and fluent coloratura in “Crude furie degli orridi abissi,” from “Serse,” to Silvio Stampiglia’s text, and a mother’s tender lyric address, in “Vieni, o figlio,” from “Ottone,” to Haym’s words, the sole aria here written for a female soprano, Margherita Durastanti.
Vivaldi’s lively two-movement Concerto in C Major for Strings and Continuo, RV 114, followed. Hallenberg made of the familiar “Scherza infida,” from Handel’s “Ariodante,” with libretto by Antonio Salvi, an at once elegiac and irate outpouring, sung in lush tone, the repeat of the A section gently embellished, but not without appropriate menace. Riccardo Broschi’s “Son qual nave ch’agitata,” from “Artaserse,” employing a Pietro Metastasio text, and written for the composer’s famous brother, was the performance’s fiery finale, replete with brilliant, rapid-fire coloratura, and resulting in a fully-merited standing ovation.
We weren’t quite ready to let Hallenberg go, so she obliged us with two encores, “In braccio a mille furie,” from Nicola Antonio Porpora’s “Semiramide riconosciuta,” with fast and furious coloratura pouring out of her, and each note perfectly placed, and in the familiar plea, “Lascia ch’io pianga,” from Handel’s “Rinaldo,” spinning out the liquid legato line.