Maria Teresa Agnesi (1720-1795)
Airs extraits de l'opéra "Sofonisba"

Elena De Simone, mezzo-soprano
Ensemble Il Mosaico

Faisant suite à la publication récente des « 12 arie con istrumenti » de la compositrice milanaise Maria Teresa Agnesi (1720-1795) à l’occasion du tricentenaire de sa naissance, la mezzo Elena de Simone et son ensemble Il Mosaico nous livrent les seules pages subsistant du troisième acte de son opéra Sofonisba (7 arie et la licenza, congé sous forme d’envoi en hommage à François III et Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche). Encore une première au disque que l’on doit à la musicologue-interprète et à ses musiciens. La musique est assurément fort belle et excellemment servie par les instrumentistes ; souple et chaleureuse, la voix de la mezzo peut sembler plus terne, moins solaire, dans les parties extrêmes de l’ambitus. Il n’empêche que cette publication reste parfaitement opportune. En attendant qu’un livret plus complet, comprenant les textes chantés, soit enfin disponible sur le site internet de l’éditeur Tactus, un lien est fourni permettant l’accès à la partition originale, conservée à la Bibliothèque nationale d’Autriche. (Alain Monnier)

This selection of seven arias plus the licenza (the closing homage to a sovereign) from the opera Sofonisba by the Milanese composer Maria Teresa Agnesi (1720-1795) appears in the 300th anniversary year of her birth, a moment, alas, when covid-19 has quenched live performances of her music. This recording is thus all the more welcome. Even today, she remains in the shadow of her more famous older sister, Maria Gaetana (1718-1799), a mathematician celebrated throughout Europe. The sisters grew up in the house of their father, a rich silk merchant, and already in 1739 the French traveler Charles de Brosses recorded Teresa’s keyboard performances in the family palazzo. She continued to be active in private Milanese circles, and composed three operas along with serenatas, largely for events connected to the Habsburg rulers of the city. She also produced solo and concerted keyboard music. Immediately after her father’s death, she married Pier Antonio Pinottini in 1753; she thus moved to his family’s castle in Cassino Scanasio (Rozzano, today the outskirts of Milan), but maintained some presence in the city’s musical life. The family’s fortune declined, and, after absence from public musical life, she died in genteel poverty. After the Arie con Istromenti (album TC720101), the voice of Elena de Simone becomes the interpreter of this new unpublished chapter dedicated to the rediscovery of the composer.