Little known today, Francesco Feo (1691 1761) was a Neapolitan composer and teacher, a contemporary of Leonardo Leo and Niccolò Jommelli. He composed a number of operas, the most famous being Siface, re di Numidia, plus sacred music. Charles Burney described his works as ‘full of fire and invention’ but his reputation faded in the 19th century. The indefatigable Fabio Biondi has unearthed one of his oratorios for this recording. The first performance of San Francesco di Sales, Apostolo del Chablais took place in Bologna in 1734. It is an oratorio on a small scale in terms of its scoring – four soloists, chamber choir, standard Baroque orchestra – but of considerable length (2h 18' here).

The oratorio focuses on François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva and later canonised as a saint. He was known for his religious writings and, in the 20th century, he was proclaimed patron saint of Catholic writers. Feo’s work, to an anonymous libretto, doesn’t set any action or events from the saint’s life but is more a series of reflections where ‘Deceit’ and ‘Heresy’ are pitted against Francesco and an Angel.

I’d challenge Burney’s ‘fire and invention’ description of Feo’s music to an extent. While much of San Francesco di Sales is attractive, little of it is truly memorable so that the oratorio’s sequence of recitatives and arias becomes something of a trial where one number sounds much like another. My interest was piqued due to aspects of Feo’s orchestration, such as the martial trumpets and the obbligato violin line (from Biondi himself) in Deceit’s aria ‘Tutte dell’Erebo’, which make you sit up and take notice, as do the swirling oboes that open his ‘Come stridente fulmine’ or the flutes that chirrup in San Francesco’s ‘Sommo Dio, dal ciel discenda’. The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra continuo are sensitively deployed, never getting in the way.

Biondi has assembled an excellent line-up of singers. Delphine Galou’s willowy contralto brings great nobility to San Francesco, soft-grained but never plummy. Monica Piccinini’s agile soprano makes for a sparky, pure-toned Angel, while Roberta Mameli deploys a warmer vibrato as Heresy. Sturdy bass Luca Tittoto sings with a good deal of nuance as Deceit, even if his coloratura isn’t always even.