Haymarket Opera Firm’s Craig Trompeter on countering the tendency for audiences to solely hearken to music that they know.

Vinci: Artaserse – Craig Trompeter & orchestra of Haymarket Opera Firm (Photograph: Elliot Mandel)

As Chicago-based Haymarket Opera Firm‘s recording of Leonardo Vinci’s Artaserse is launched on Cedille Data, we chat to the corporate’s founder and musical director Craig Trompeter about uncommon repertoire and the way he needs to counter the tendency for audiences to get lazy and solely hearken to music that they know.

The final recognized opera he composed earlier than his demise and extensively thought-about to be his masterpiece, Leonardo Vinci’s Artaserse was premiered in Rome in 1730. The opera was the primary of over 90 settings of Metastasio’s libretto (different composers who set the libretto embody Hasse, Gluck, Graun, Galuppi, JC Bach, and Arne). Vinci and Metastasio are recognized to have collaborated carefully for the world premiere of the opera in Rome. It was celebrated as a basic in its time with a number of revivals into the 1750s. The primary trendy revival of Artaserse was staged on the Opéra nationwide de Lorraine in Nancy in 2012, and the work was recorded by the identical solid with Diego Fasolis conducting Concerto Köln.

The Chicago-based Haymarket Opera Firm which specialises in traditionally knowledgeable efficiency staged Vinci’s Artaserse in June 2025, carried out by Craig Trompeter; the work’s skilled premiere within the USA. The solid featured countertenors Kangmin Justin Kim, Key’mon Murrah, and Ryan Belongie, tenor Eric Ferring, mezzo-soprano Emily Fons and male soprano Elijah McCormack.

Subsequently, the corporate went into the recording studio and their recording of Vinci’s Artaserse is launched on Cedille Data in March 2026, a follow-up to the corporate’s 2022 recording of Joseph Bologne’s L’Amant Anonyme, additionally on Cedille.

Vinci: Artaserse – Elijah McCormack and Ryan Belongie – Haymarket Opera Firm (Photograph: Elliot Mandel)

The corporate selected Artaserse as a result of, in Craig’s phrases, it’s “such an exquisite opera”, but in addition as a result of there is just one model of it within the catalogues (and that courting from 2012), he felt that it might be a superb to have one other model disc. Additionally, Craig thinks that such a basic opera deserves extra publicity. It is stuffed with nice music, each stunning and thrilling, and exhibits off the voices so properly. The type of music will not be properly represented within the catalogues.

They gave three performances of its staging in June 2025, slicing the opera barely to deliver the operating time in at underneath 4 hours. They subsequently recorded it full bar a number of bits of recitative. The performances had been directed by Drew Minter who’s an skilled in Baroque gesture. The end result utilizing interval costumes and stylised motion was properly obtained with individuals having fun with the opera. Given its size, members of the corporate joked in regards to the work being the corporate’s ‘Ring Cycle’ although actually the time flew by.

When premiered in Rome in 1730 Artaserse was solid utilizing solely males with castratos enjoying the feminine roles (Papal decree meant that girls weren’t allowed on stage). Craig explains that Haymarket Opera Firm’s intention had been to carry out the work with an all-male solid [something that Bayreuth Baroque Opera did in 2022 with Vinci’s Alessandro nell’Indie, also written for Rome in 1730, see my review]. Within the occasion this proved troublesome to realize and the corporate’s solid options countertenors alongside a feminine mezzo-soprano and a trans singer. Among the music sits excessive for the trendy countertenor voice and people 2012 performances transposed a few of the music down. Haymarket carried out the opera within the authentic keys although they used 392 Hz which is a tone under trendy pitch.

The corporate is at all times searching for attention-grabbing and strange repertoire and had been fortunate to have the ability to hook the file firm into this opera. Artaserse was given a studio recording, within the theatre the place they staged the opera, over 4 to 5 days after the run of performances. That is one thing of a luxurious within the trendy recording world when stay recordings are sometimes the norm. Their earlier recording, additionally on Cedille, was of Joseph Bologne’s solely surviving opera, L’Amant Anonyme which premiered in Paris in 1780. Craig describes it as virtually a play with a whole lot of dialogue and dance actions. He finds it a extremely stunning piece and finds it unhappy that no different opera of Bologne’s survives.

Vinci: Artaserse – Kangmin Justin Kim and Eric Ferring – Haymarket Opera Firm (Photograph: Elliot Mandel)

Craig, a viola da gamba participant, based Haymarket Opera Firm in 2010 (the corporate takes its identify from Chicago’s Haymarket Affair of 1886 which gave focus to the world-wide labour motion, and from the King’s Theatre within the Haymarket, London the place Handel produced his Italian operas). Craig had change into annoyed with the best way individuals carry out a handful of Baroque works ‘over and over’. As a gamba participant he felt on the fringes of the repertoire anyway and was conscious that there was a number of different repertoire on the market. He was excited by getting this music carried out, and different individuals had been . Since forming the corporate in 2010 they’ve given some 40 productions, and Craig stands by every opera they’ve accomplished, all had been value doing. He needs to counter the tendency for audiences to get lazy and solely hearken to music that they know.

It’s at all times an thrilling problem to deliver this music to the stage, significantly for composers who don’t get that a lot air time, however sadly, a lot attention-grabbing materials stays in manuscript. He mentions Stradella as one notable composer who wrote some ‘fantastic stuff’. Brian Clarke who runs Prima la Musica has engraved a whole lot of repertoire for the corporate and a younger American musicologist is doing an version of Maria Margherita Grimani’s 1715 oratorio La decollazione di San Giovanni Battista which the corporate carried out in 2024.

A number of different engravers through the years have accomplished work for the corporate and Craig describes it as ‘fairly a course of’ as manuscripts usually have errors in them. Slightly gratifyingly, some editions made for the corporate have been utilized by different firms.

Final summer season they made their debut on the Ravinia Pageant, the summer season house of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Handel’s Alcina that includes Nicole Cabell within the title position which was properly obtained. On the finish of March this yr, they’re planning the American premiere of Hasse’s serenata La Semele. This makes use of simply three singers for Semele, Jupiter and Juno; Craig will direct Haymarket Opera’s semi-staged efficiency with Emily Birsan as Semele, Elizabeth DeShong as Giove and Karina Gauvin as Giunone.

Vinci: Artaserse – Haymarket Opera (Photograph: Elliot Mandel)

Yearly the corporate offers a fundraising live performance described as an early opera cabaret. This yr the occasion is in April and their nearest and dearest singers shall be performing music on the theme of Orfeo and Semele. Additional forward the corporate shall be giving the Chicago premiere of Charpentier’s David et Jonathas carried out by Paris-based American conductor and harpsichordist Jory Vinikour. They firm carried out two brief Charpentier operas some years in the past, however their final massive French Baroque opera was Marin Marais’s Arianne et Bacchus in 2017. In September 2026, the corporate joins forces with The Newberry Consort for Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Zachary Wilder within the title position.

Leonardo Vinci: Artaserse (1730) –  Kangmin Justin Kim, Key’Mon Murrah, Eric Ferring, Emily Fons, Elijah McCormack, Ryan Belongie – Haymarket Opera Firm, Craig Trompeter – Cedille Data