Composer: Thomas Arne
Performer: Caitlin Hulcup, Christopher Ainslie, Andrew Staples, Elizabeth Watts, Daniel Norman, Rebecca Bottone, Mozartists
Conductor: Ian Page
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Signum
Release: 2021
Size: 4.68 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Artaxerxes, Act I: Overture
02. Artaxerxes, Act I: Recitative: “Still silence reigns around”
03. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 1, Duettino: “Fair Aurora, prithee stay”
04. Artaxerxes, Act 1: Recitative: “Alas, thou know’st that for my love to thee”
05. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 2, Air: “Adieu, thou lovely youth”
06. Artaxerxes, Act I: Recitative: “O cruel parting! How can I survive?”
07. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 3, Air: “Amid a thousand racking woes”
08. Artaxerxes, Act I: Recitative: “Be firm, my heart”
09. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 4, Air: “Behold, on Lethe’s dismal strand”
10. Artaxerxes, Act I: Recitative: “Stay, Artaxerxes, stay”
11. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 5, Air: “Fair Semira, lovely maid”
12. Artaxerxes, Act I: Recitative: “I fear some dread disaster”
13. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 6, Air: “When real joy we miss”
14. Artaxerxes, Act I: Recitative: “Ye Gods, protectors of the Persian Empire”
15. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 7, Air: “How hard is the fate”
16. Artaxerxes, Act I: Recitative: “Whither do I fly?”
17. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 8, Air: “Thy father! Away, I renounce the soft claim”
18. Artaxerxes, Act I: Recitative: “Ye cruel Gods, what crime have I committed”
19. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 9, Air: “Acquit thee of this foul offence”
20. Artaxerxes, Act I: Recitative: “Appearance, I must own, is strong against me”
21. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 10, Air: “O too lovely, too unkind”
22. Artaxerxes, Act I: Accompanied recitative: “Dear and beloved shade”
23. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 11, Air: “Fly, soft ideas, fly”
24. Artaxerxes, Act II: Recitative: “Guards, speed ye to the tower”
25. Artaxerxes, Act II: No. 12, Air: “In infancy, our hopes and fears”
26. Artaxerxes, Act II: Recitative: “So far my great resolve succeeds”
27. Artaxerxes, Act II: No. 13, Air: “Disdainful you fly me” (Arbaces)
28. Artaxerxes, Act II: Recitative: “Why, my dear friend, so pensive”
29. Artaxerxes, Act II: No. 14, Air: “To sigh and complain”
30. Artaxerxes, Act II: Recitative: “How many links to dire misfortune’s chain”
31. Artaxerxes, Act I: No. 15, Air: “If o’er the cruel tyrant love”
32. Artaxerxes, Act II: Recitative: “Which fatal evil shall I first oppose?”
33. Artaxerxes, Act II: No. 16, Air: “If the river’s swelling waves”
34. Artaxerxes, Act II: Recitative: “Ye solid pillars of the Persian Empire”
35. Artaxerxes, Act II: No. 17, Air: “By that belov’d embrace”
36. Artaxerxes, Act II: Recitative: “Ah me, at poor Arbaces’ parting”
37. Artaxerxes, Act II: No. 18, Air: “Monster, away”
38. Artaxerxes, Act II: Recitative: “See, lov’d Semira”
39. Artaxerxes, Act II: Accompanied recitative: “At last my soul has room”
40. Artaxerxes, Act II: No. 19, Air: “Thou, like the glorious sun”
41. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 20, Air: “Why is death for ever late”
42. Artaxerxes, Act III: Recitative: “Arbaces! Gracious Heav’n”
43. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 21, Air: “Water parted from the sea”
44. Artaxerxes, Act III: Recitative: “That face, secure in conscious innocence”
45. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 22, Air: “Though oft a cloud with envious shade”
46. Artaxerxes, Act III: Recitative: “My son, Arbaces… where art thou retir’d?”
47. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 23, Air: “O let the danger of a son”
48. Artaxerxes, Act III: Accompanied recitative: “Ye adverse Gods!”
49. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 24, Air: “O, much lov’d son, if death”
50. Artaxerxes, Act III: Recitative: “Perhaps the King releas’d Arbaces”
51. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 25, Air: “Let not rage, thy bosom firing”
52. Artaxerxes, Act III: Recitative: “What have I done? Alas, I vainly thought”
53. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 26, Air: “’Tis not true that in our grief”
54. Artaxerxes, Act III: Recitative: “Nor here my searching eyes”
55. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 27, Duetto: “For thee I live, my dearest”
56. Artaxerxes, Act III: Recitative: “To you, my people, much belov’d”
57. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 28, Air: “The soldier, tir’d of war’s alarms”
58. Artaxerxes, Act III: Recitative: “Behold, my King, Arbaces at thy feet”
59. Artaxerxes, Act III: No. 29, Finale: “Live to us, to Empire live”
A composer inextricably linked with London’s Covent Garden, Thomas Arne’s greatest opera, Artaxerxes, was premièred at the Theatre Royal, the predecessor of the Royal Opera House, on 2 February 1762 and remained in the Covent Garden repertory until the late 1830s, where it received a documented 111 performances before 1790. The young Mozart almost certainly attended a performance when he came to London in the mid1760s and Haydn was also acquainted with the work, enthusiastically exclaiming that he “had no idea we had such an opera in the English language.”
The Mozartists, under the dynamic leadership of conductor and artistic director Ian Page, are leading exponents of the music of Mozart and his contemporaries. Originally called Classical Opera, the company was founded in 1997 and has received widespread international acclaim for its stylish and virtuosic period-instrument orchestra, its imaginative and innovative programming and its ability to nurture and develop world-class young artists.
Renowned for their fresh and insightful interpretations of well-known masterpieces as well as for their ability to bring rare and neglected works to light, they have mounted staged productions of many of Mozart’s operas. In 2015 the company launched MOZART 250, a ground-breaking 27-year project exploring the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life, works and influences. Described by The Observer as “among the most audacious classical music scheduling ever,” this flagship project presents 250th Anniversary performances of most of Mozart’s important works, placing them in context alongside other significant works by Mozart’s contemporaries