Sandrine Piau & Vivica Genaux (sopranos)
Guillemette Laurens & Romina Basso (mezzo sopranos)
Nathalie Stutzmann (contralto)
Paul Agnew & Stefano Ferrari (tenors)

Federico Maria Sardelli, conductor

world première

“Vivica Genaux, Nathalie Stutzmann and Guillemette Laurens all contribute some good dramatic singing, and Romina Basso's creamy melodic singing is outstanding. Conductor Sardelli's methods are never extreme for the sake of a cheap thrill. Here we find a sincere attempt to let the story unfold through clearly communicated and simply delivered recitatives and superbly paced arias, and Modo Antiquo play with plenty of vivaciousness and sonority.”
Gramophone Magazine, March 2008

“Conductor Federico Maria Sardelli… has assembled a strong cast of soloists for L'Atenaide from among which Sandrine Piau in the title role… and Paul Agnew as Leontino, her father, stand out for their accomplished techniques… All in all a stimulating and accomplished achievement.”
BBC Music Magazine, November 2007 ****



The Vivaldi Edition, a recording venture conceived by the Italian musicologist Alberto Basso and the independent label Naïve, is one of the most ambitious recording projects of the twenty-first century.

Its principal objective is to record the massive collection of Vivaldi autograph manuscripts preserved today in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin, some 450 works. Incredibly, this is the private library of scores Vivaldi had at home at the time of his death in Vienna in 1741 and includes his extant operas, hundreds of concertos, sacred compositions and cantatas. Much of this music has not been heard since the 18th century.

The release of more than 100 CDs, which began in 2000, will extend over the next ten years. The Vivaldi Edition's goal is to make this extraordinary wealth of music available to the public and at the same time to reveal the full genius of Vivaldi, not only as a composer of instrumental music, for which he was already known, but as the creator of some of the 18th-century's most exhilarating vocal music.