Francesco Benucci was the star comic baritone around whom Emperor Joseph II’s Italian opera company revolved, and therefore the man for whom Mozart wrote some of his choicest roles, notably Figaro. Matthew Rose gives us generous chunks of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas mingled with arias by Salieri, Sarti and Martin y Soler, which all sound strong, thanks partly to the energised playing of Arcangelo, under Jonathan Cohen’s nuanced direction. Rose is hugely impressive, his deep, robust bass-baritone flexible and expressive, even if it doesn’t have the insouciance that would come from having lighter high notes. In Guglielmo’s duet with Dorabella (soprano Katherine Watson), Rose is perhaps more avuncular than seductive, but he otherwise captures each character succinctly, from Mozart’s schemers to Salieri’s bloodthirsty King Axur to the very different self-importance of Sarti’s Frasconio, who leaps into falsetto as he imagines the women weeping over him. An apt tribute from one fine singer to another.
