Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante - Scarlatti: Humanità e Lucifero (2010)

Alessandro Scarlatti's `Humanità e Lucifero` is an oratorio (or a cantata) for two soloists, a soprano/sopranist and a low tenor. The conductor on this CD, maestro Fabio Biondi, argues in the liner note that the final score resulted from a simplification process. It is a charming and direct piece deviating from the more heavy and learned style characteristic of many Alessandro Scarlatti's vocal Scarlatti: La Santissima Trinità and instrumental works Scarlatti: Concerti & Sinfonie .
The soprano (l'Humanità) gets more music to sing than the tenor (Lucifero), and the oratorio ends with a triumph of the higher voice. The soloists on this recording, Rossana Bertini and Massimo Crispi, have pleasant voices and cope with their parts with ease. Scarlatti's Devil is a galant figure and not a Romantic misantrope as in XIX th century opera.
The premiere likely took place in Rome in 1704. The interpolation of two Corelli's violin sonatas in this production is corroborated by a reconstruction: it is probable that the noted composer and teacher Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) was present at the premier and that some of his works were played that evening, though nobody of course can prove that these works were Corelli's trio sonatas Op. 4 No. 1 in C major and Op. 3 No. 3 in B flat major. The first of them is heard after the oratorio's first part, the second of them is interpolated in the oratorio's second part. According to the booklet, the soloists in these trio sonatas should be Fabio Biondi and Enrico Casazza.