On track: Back to Baroque with a passion

The latest instalment of Vivaldi opera on the Naïve label has scored one minor victory. Tito Manlio is the first to feature the male of the species on its cover, after a line of elegant femmes fatale.

Storms are brewing from the first bars of the overture, preparing us for just over three hours of political and sexual machinations in Republican Rome.

The opera dates from 1718, written during Vivaldi's few years in Mantua, a town which, back then, was making a concerted effort to upgrade its civic status by investment in the arts sector.

The spectacular Tito Manlio was commissioned for the singularly unspectacular wedding of Prince Philip and written with the time constraint of a five-day deadline.

The plot takes some unravelling, especially when the main friction is between a father and son who share the same name. However, being Baroque opera, things are simplified when the son is played by a soprano (the glorious Karina Gauvin).

Filial duty is the main theme here, as a Roman consul (the Tito Manlio of the title) anguishes over punishing his son who, against his wishes, has killed a rebel leader who had nefarious designs on the Republic.

And, outside of John Adams' Nixon in China, have politics ever inspired such luscious music?

With a seductive recording and Ottavio Dantone and his Accademia Bizantina handling instrumental matters, this is back to Baroque con grande passione and almost bar-by-bar thrills.

The many recitatives which carry the plot are slice-of-life stuff, from the first edgy dialogue between Manlio and Servilia, the rebel's daughter. Some are reflective, and movingly so, as when Tito is in the throes of fatherly guilt, with viola d'amore adding pathos.

Arias are immensely varied. While Gemino ponders on slaughter and submission in a mere 40 seconds, Lucio spends seven minutes pleading for Tito's daughter, with an oboe solo that would melt the most obdurate of hearts.

Tito Manlio is perfect for that DVD-less evening you've promised yourself. With a handsome booklet to keep you abreast of the plot in three languages, all that is needed is a suitable chianti or soave for libatory accompaniment.

* Vivaldi, Tito Manlio (Naïve OP 30413, through Elite Imports)