Vivaldi, Darius and the Shroud of Turin

It’s official, thadieu and I have our tickets for the very silly L’incoronazione di Dario at Torino’s Teatro Regio, where we’ll see this badarse cast under Dantone’s (who else? He loves this one) baton:

Dario, che viene incoronato re dei persiani tenore	Carlo Allemano
Statira, principessa semplice, primogenita di Ciro contralto	Sara Mingardo
Argene, sorella minore di Statira contralto	Delphine Galou
Niceno, filosofo baritono	Riccardo Novaro
Alinda, principessa di Media, amante di Oronte soprano	Roberta Mameli
Oronte, nobile perfetto, pretendente di Statira mezzosoprano	Lucia Cirillo
Arpago, pretendente di Statira soprano	Veronica Cangemi
Flora, damigella di corte, confidente delle due principesse contralto	Romina Tomasoni
Ombra di Ciro tenore	Cullen Gandy

So we know the contraltos but what of the baritone? He was also in the original recording as well as at Festival de Beaune:

And here’s Sr Novaro singing not Vivaldi but spinning rather well on that horse statue:

Whilst scratching my no so cosmopolitan head regarding things to do in Torino other than watching contraltos and friends, a buddy reminded me of the famous shroud.

Jesus in the shroud, posing suspiciously like a medieval knight would

Why of course! Who wouldn’t want to see that? Except, upon investigation, it turns out that it’s not that often on display. 9/10 times you’re likely to see a copy. Which means you see a copy of a… fantasy. About right for the post truth era 😉 Though we hope all the above musicians show up in old skool real fashion.