Salon Napolitan

The Neapolitan Salon from the Revolution to the Restoration

IMAGINE the sunshine dappling off the waters of the Mediterranean, the sounds of street vendors - and grand ladies and gentlemen being entertained in the great salons.

Naples at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Centuries was a city which survived and thrived on its cultural and social life, and music was at its very centre.

Concerts, "conversations" and salons were the order of the day, among the rising middle classes as well as in the grand homes.

Well, you can't have a concert without music can you? And, unsurprisingly for Italy, which has given the world so much passionate opera, the song was king.

This CD, one of a line of 'Neapolitan' records produced by Opus 111, presents 20 completely delightful works by composers like Federico Ricci and Niccolo Zingarelli.

Hardly household names now, but they would have been in Naples homes 200 years ago.

My favourite is a short song - less than four minutes long but still one of the lengthier tracks on the CD - is by Ferdinando Paer and is entitled Quel cor che mi prometti, basically, the heart which you have promised me (no, my Italian isn't that good, the songs are translated into German, English and French at the back of the encolosed booklet).

This is in no small measure because of the top class performances by the trio of singers: soprano Roberta Invernizzi, mezzo Lucia Naviglio, and tenor Rosario Totaro. Invernezzi has a particularly beautiful voice, clean and clear like a bell. But all three blend well together.

They also reproduce the verve and passion of the original settings, accompanied by no more than a period piece piano.

Highly recommended to anyone, anywhere, and not just Italiaphiles. Bring a little Mediterranean sunshine into your life.

Opus 111

OPS 30-255