Opera as a genre is not much represented here in the SAW group, but I thought I'll have a go at recording one of the more famous opera arias in the world: "Ombra Mai Fu", the opening aria from Handel's 1738 opera Serse (or "Xerxes"). The piece is fairly high on the list of popular classics, often in instrumental arrangements under the name "Largo from Xerxes". The aria was written for a castrato voice, singing the part of Xerxes, but is now usually sung by a male countertenor or a female mezzosoprano. There are lots of vocal and instrumental versions on Youtube, two I liked are by the countertenors Andreas Scholl and Philippe Jaroussky -- I prefer the voice of Scholl but the instrumental arrangement of the Jaroussky recording because of the authentic Baroque theorbo playing. My arrangement is for mandolin orchestra in six parts (mandolins 1+2, mandola, mandocello, contrabass, guitar), found at the now-defunct Nakano site. I've multitracked all six parts in Audacity -- the bass and cello parts are actually both within OM range and I've rejigged the guitar part to make it fit the tenor guitar. Unsurprisingly, the arranger has given the vocal line to the first mandolin, which also means that there is no mandolin for the instrumental introduction in the first 14 bars, making a dramatic entrance with the sustained high D in bar 15. Instrumentation: Mandolins 1+2: 1915 Embergher mandolin Mandola: 1925 Zimmermann waldzither "Mandocello" and "Bass": Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin Guitar: Ozark tenor guitar [MP3=1]http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=107162&d=1379954640[/MP3] Martin
