Carlo il Calvo (Rome, 1738) was adapted anonymously from Francesco Silvani’s libretto La costanza in trionfo (Venice, 1696), although Boris Kehrmann’s loquacious booklet essay states instead that it was L’innocenza giustificata (1698). Either way, Silvani’s drama was adapted numerous times across more than 40 years, including Alessandro Scarlatti’s Carlo, re d’Allemagna (Naples, 1716). In a nutshell, the emperor Louis the Pious has died, sparking a bitter feud between families from his two different marriages. His eldest son Lottario (Lothair I) attempts to reclaim part of the empire taken away from him and bequeathed to his much younger half-brother Carlo (Charles the Bald). Lottario’s son Adalgiso is in love with, and betrothed to, Carlo’s older step-sister Gildippe – but their happiness is interrupted when Lottario pretends that Carlo is an illegitimate bastard from an adulterous affair between his mother Giuditta and the honourable Berardo. Things escalate rapidly and Adalgiso thrice prevents his father from murdering the young boy Carlo (who never sings) before at last the warring scions of Charlemagne’s descendants are reconciled.

This studio recording was made in Athens almost a year after a run of staged performances at Bayreuth’s Margravial opera house, built in the 1740s and beautifully renovated a few years ago. Countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic’s production relocated the drama to 1920s Cuba and featured the cast dancing the Charleston. George Petrou adds thundering timpani to Porpora’s rich orchestration of braying horns, punctuating trumpets, whooping oboes and bustling strings in the overture. Pacy recitatives, cut considerably, are accompanied assertively by a vigorous continuo team.

Lottario’s justificatory yet bittersweet ‘Quando s’oscura il cielo’ is sung by Cencic with limpid expressivity and finesse that are matched by Armonia Atenea’s softly whispering strings. At the end of Act 1, Adalgiso’s horrified accompagnato and flashy ‘Saggio nocchier che vede turbine in aria accolto’ typifies Franco Fagioli’s strongly aspirated and supercharged feistiness. Julia Lezhneva gets around Gildippe’s fiendishly difficult quick passages with agility, although over-elaborate embellishments, contrived huge cadenzas, dodgy tuning and an uncomfortably pinched tone rear their heads from time to time. Giuditta is sung emotively and with crystalline precision by Suzanne Jerosme; her outstanding moment is an intense reaction to Asprando’s betrayal and the violent threat on her child’s life in a vivid accompagnato and infuriated aria ‘Misera! O cielo … Tu m’ingannasti, oh Dio!’ (repositioned here a few scenes later in Act 2 than Porpora’s location for it). Bruno de Sá sings sweetly as Giuditta’s loyal supporter Berardo, who expresses his love for Eduige with deft charm.

There is virtuoso coloratura galore, even for the duplicitous Asprando, pricked by his guilty conscience in ‘Piena di sdegno in fronte’, sung brilliantly by Petr Nekoranec. Preponderantly quick major-key arias means that rare excursions into minor-key arias provide welcome contrast – such as Eduige’s ‘Pender da’ cenni tuoi’, sung eloquently by mezzo-soprano Nian Wang (it is a pity her only aria in Act 3 is cut). Culminative elements of the drama come to the boil effectively, even if the climactic confrontation between Lottario, Giuditta and Adalgiso is besmirched by a frantic and unsteady drum and the child Carlo crying loudly throughout the scene. Numerous cuts include almost all of the complicated scena ultima. Nevertheless, Carlo il Calvo deserves its spirited revival.