In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, La Ritirata and Josetxu Obregón have created a programme for Glossa sallying forth on the back of music composed by Antonio Caldara and inspired by El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha.
Antonio Caldara was neither the first nor the last composer to have his compositional ingenuity sparked off by Cervantes’ timeless masterpiece. He may well have been propelled forwards by his own experiencing the Spanish soundscape within a century of the publication of the two parts of the Don Quijote: Barcelona was a working “port of call” for Caldara after Mantua and Rome and before Vienna. For the Viennese court he wrote a pair of operas (with librettos by GC Pasquini): Don Chisciotte in Corte della Duchessa and Sancio Panza Governatore dell’isola Barattaria, and from these works Obregón – like Caldara also a cellist – has put together a selection of arias.
Soloists María Espada, Emiliano González Toro and João Fernandes invest their abundant collective artistry in bringing to life a rapid series of Cervantine characters, not least the Spanish knight and his squire. Interspersed between these vocal contributions are a series of instrumental ballets composed for these operas by Nicola Matteis, who also worked at the Viennese court. In the booklet essay Begoña Lolo and Adela Presas set the scene for Caldara’s contribution to the musical legacy of Don Quixote.
released September 1, 2016
María Espada, soprano
Emiliano González Toro, tenor
João Fernandes, bass
La Ritirata
Hiro Kurosaki, concertmaster
Josetxu Obregón, artistic direction
Tamar Lalo, recorders
Guillermo Peñalver, recorders and traverso
Daniel Ramírez, Laura Díez, oboes
Eyal Streett, bassoon
Hiro Kurosaki, Pablo Prieto, Daniel Pinteño, Beatriz Amezúa, violins
David Glidden, viola
Josetxu Obregón, violoncello
Xisco Aguiló, violone
Ignacio Prego, harpsichord
Daniel Oyarzabal, organ
Franziska Fleischanderl, salterio
David Mayoral, percussion
Daniel Garay, wind machine
Recorded in Madrid (Universidad Autónoma), in May 2016
Engineered by Manuel Prieto and Federico Prieto
Artistic supervision: Olivier Fourés
Edited by Olivier Fourés, Federico Prieto and Josetxu Obregón
Produced by Josetxu Obregón and Tamar Lalo
CD concept by Tamar Lalo and Josetxu Obregón
Executive producer: Carlos Céster
Design: Rosa Tendero (
rosatendero.com)
Photos of the recording sessions: Noah Shaye
Editorial direction: Carlos Céster
Editorial assistance: María Díaz, Mark Wiggins
Essay translations: Mark Wiggins (Eng), Pierre Élie Mamou (Fra), Susanne Lowien (Deu)
Basque translation by Miren Zeberio available at
glossamusic.com
Manuscripts of the Musiksammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek and the Biblioteca Musical
Víctor Espinós del Ayuntamiento de Madrid transcribed by Guillermo Peñalver.
Sung texts reviewed by Eugenia Martinini and translated by Avril Bardoni.
Introductory texts to the arias written by José Luis Obregón Perea and translated by Mark Wiggins