Silvio Garghetti was a member of the Viennese Imperial Court from 1702 until his death in 1729 and was involved in 28 different opera and oratorio productions at the Viennese Imperial Court. He was clearly the outstanding lyrical tenor of his time in Vienna and most likely also a star tenor in the modern sense of the word who appeared alongside the most famous male and female singers and castratos of the Baroque period. Composers employed at court including Francesco Conti, Johann Joseph Fux, Antonio Caldara, Giovanni and Antonio Bononcini and also Marc’ Antonio Ziani created imaginative and ornate arias for him to sing in a variety of operatic performances.

The arias presented on this CD by Austrian tenor Markus Miesenberger display a representative cross-section of operatic music performed at the Viennese Imperial court at the beginning of the 18th century.