Vintage Handel The pastiche 'Catone' - recommended by GERALD FENECH 'Carlo Ipata and his masterful band of singers and instrumentalists give a most persuasive and fascinating performance capturing all the nuances of the score with impressive conviction and verbal dexterity.'

It was common practice for eighteenth century composers to put together an operatic score by collating arias by several fellow composers and adapting them to a more coherent plotline: the 'pasticcio' or pastiche. Up to very recent times these so called 'operas' were regarded as the product of singers' whims and impresarios' revenues rather than the lofty demands of Art with a capital 'A'. More contemporary studies, about Handel's pasticcios in particular, have changed this perception, and they have shown that this practice originated from a series of less mundane or prosaic reasons than previously had generally been believed to be the case...

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL

JOHANN ADOLPH HASSE

NICOLA PORPORA

ANTONIO VIVALDI

LONDON

ENGLAND

GERMANY