US TARIFFS UPDATE | August 2025 | No impact expected on your Presto orders | Read full details
Francesco Scarlatti: Il Daniele nel Lago de' Leoni
Christopher Monks, Armonico Consort (early music ensemble)
Scarlatti’s graceful music does not quite match the implied drama of the action. Daniel is sung by the soprano Hannah Fraser-MacKenzie who is poised and sprightly as Daniel encourages himself,...
Francesco Scarlatti: Il Daniele nel Lago de' Leoni
Christopher Monks, Armonico Consort (early music ensemble)
Purchase product
Scarlatti’s graceful music does not quite match the implied drama of the action. Daniel is sung by the soprano Hannah Fraser-MacKenzie who is poised and sprightly as Daniel encourages himself,...
About
Armonico Consort present their next instalment of works by Franceso Scarlatti, this time his only surviving oratorio ‘Il Daniele nel Lago de’Leoni’ or Daniel in the Lions’ Den. Scarlatti’s Daniele conforms in all general aspects to the typical Sicilian oratorio of the late-seventeenth century, which was itself closely modelled on Roman practice: four or five singers inhabit character roles, without a separate narrator, together with a chorus often consisting of the soloists singing in ensemble. The work will be performed at Wigmore Hall and the album launched on 10th January 2025.
Contents and tracklist
Spotlight on this release
-
Christopher and Geoffrey in the Lions' Den
12th Feb 2025
Conductor Christopher Monks and musicologist Geoffrey Webber talk about their work bringing Francesco Scarlatti's dramatic Biblical oratorio Il Daniele nel Lago de' Leoni back to life - featuring dragons, demons and more.
Awards and reviews
February 2025
Scarlatti’s graceful music does not quite match the implied drama of the action. Daniel is sung by the soprano Hannah Fraser-MacKenzie who is poised and sprightly as Daniel encourages himself, and somewhat more determined when he plots to ‘kill the monster’...The orchestra is directed with style and nuance.
February 2025
Patchy moments of infelicitous tuning from upper strings and uneven singing from time to time do not negate that Christopher Monks’s well-paced and attentive performance reveals the compositional qualities of the intriguing lesser-spotted Scarlatti.
9th January 2025
The Armonico performance certainly underlines the dramatic and pictorial aspects of Scarlatti’s score, and even if the solo voices seem a little uneven at times, it’s a more than worthwhile rehabilitation.
