VIVALDI: “CATONE IN UTICA.� Cecilia Gasdia, Marilyn...

VIVALDI: “CATONE IN UTICA.� Cecilia Gasdia, Marilyn Schmiege, Susanna Rigacci, Margarita Zimmermann, Ernesto Palacio; I Solisti Veneti conducted by Claudio Scimone. Erato ECD-88142 (two compact discs). Although billed as a first recording, there’s less here than promised. Only the second and third acts of Vivaldi’s 1735 allegory of tyranny and freedom survive. Disdaining authentic performance practice, Scimone’s version provides almost two unbroken hours of the female voice. The stylistic misdemeanors of the cast additionally rob these fragments of interest; both Gasdia as Julius Caesar and Zimmermann as Pompey’s widow belie their burgeoning international reputations with shrill, wobbly vocalism; as Cato, Palacio dispenses a modicum of nobility. The lackluster conducting makes this a monotonous proposition, a weak argument for Vivaldi’s talents as an opera composer.