The composers whose preexisting arias we know are incorporated here include Vivaldi himself (8), Giacomelli and Hasse (3 each: Giacomelli actually composed the “Sposa” aria mentioned above), Riccardo Broschi (2), as well as one by Porpora that ended up being replaced.

But recent performances have demonstrated that a well-constructed pasticcio can work just as effectively as one entirely composed from scratch.

The practice was long derided by music historians and critics, obsessed by Romantic-era notions of originality and composerly authority. The aim, often, was to allow certain scheduled singers to display their special gifts. This opera is a “pasticcio”: one in which the composer-in-charge (here Vivaldi) brought together arias from previous operas by himself or someone else and stitched them together as necessary, usually with new arias of his own and new recitatives. Either way, the work is, in Ryom’s numbering, RV703. A download-only recording, by Pinchgut Opera (Australia, less widely distributed) is likewise entitled Bajazet. The Biondi recording retitled the work Bajazet.

A previous recording under the remarkable Fabio Biondi was welcomed by record critics, and some arias (e.g., Irene’s “Sposa, son disprezzata”) have also been recorded separately by such fine singers as Cecilia Bartoli. Marina De Liso (Andronico), Arianna Vendittelli (Idaspe), Sophie Rennert (Irene), Delphine Galou (Asteria), Filippo Mineccia (Tamerlano), Bruno Taddia (Bajazet).Īccademia Bizantina, conducted by Ottavio Dantone.Īttentive collectors may already own a recording of this opera, a work concocted by Vivaldi for Carnival season in Verona, 1735. Vivaldi put this opera together using, in part, arias associated with two famous singers: the “Moorish” (i.e., half-African) Vittorio Tesi and the castrato Farinelli.

Vivaldi edition operas