Michael Gray - Tenor - Non tempesta che gl’alberi sfronda from Vivaldi’s La fida ninfa

Part Four - Tenor Michael Gray in his final Masters of Music Recital for the New Zealand School of Music accompanied by Bruce Greenfield. In La fida Ninfa, we can see a fine sampling of the agility and vocal prowess typical of a tempest aria, complete with leaps, scales and repeated notes. Nonetheless Vivaldi, interrupts the tempestuous character to introduce a pathetic melodic element, at the appearance of the line “Portò mai nel mio sen tal dolor“. In this way the aria achieves a completeness of character and balance that makes it atypical of the standard tempest aria.