Cherry Ripe

11/01/2009
Bob Crimeen
Sunday Herald Sun (Australia)

History has not been beneficent to Giovanni Paisiello, Charles Horn, Peter von Winter, Marco Antonio da Fonseca Portugallo, Pietro Generali, Johann Simon Mayr and Francesco Bianchi, a mere smidgin of whose vast collective output receives long-overdue recognition on this delightful recording.

In total, they composed almost 400 operas, probably none of which has been performed on any stage for at least the past century.

Richard Bonynge , though, knows much about these men and their music. (The Richard Bonynge Archive is a vast treasury containing original manuscripts and music-oriented art works).

Bonynge’s partnership with Herald Sun Aria winner, soprano Deborah Riedel , empathetically accompanied by the Arcadia Lane Orchestra, has realised a program of almost unknown arias that, er, were cherry ripe for belated resurrection.