Customer Reviews

Dido & Aeneas / Dawson, Joshua, Finlay, Kiehr, Bickley, Visse, Blaze; Jacobs

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rene Jacob's recording of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas is sure to go down in the list of great recordings, but I do have a few issues to pick with it. Rene Jacobs direction is a tad weird. He takes the solos rather fast and the choruses very slow. Otherwise he and the orchestra of the age of the enlightenment fit together great. Lynne Dawson's Dido is one of the best I have ever heard. Much better than Emma Kirkby or Kirsten Flagsted (even though I recognize the historical significance of Kirsten.) Rosemary Joshua's Belina is a tad generic. Gerald Finley's Aeneas is THE best no rival. Susan Bickley's witch is a tad boring and doesn't really sound like she wants venegance. The rest of the cast is great (especially the 2 witches- I'm a countertenor so I love to see them incorporated into D AND A.) Overall a great effort.

You must purchase this disc, even if you already own this opera (and especially if you own the Pinnock version). Lynne Dawson, who has sung Belinda with Pinnock, here takes on the role of Dido - and gives a perfect, larger-than-life performance. There is nothing I can say that will suffice to express the superlatives her singing deserves. Rene Jacobs does a masterful job of pace - my biggest complaint with Pinnock. Dido's Lament is slow and painful - the world stops spinning for 4 minutes every time I listen in! The Sorceress, sung by Susan Bickley, is outstanding, and the 2 other witches, sung by countertenors and performed as ugly as possible, are very well done indeed. The one performance I liked better on Pinnock's disc was the Aeneas of Stephen Varcoe - but Gerald Finley doesn't turn this into less than a stellar disc. The recording quality lives up to the normal Harmonia Mundi standards. You will not regret this purchase.

Parts of this recording are very good. I like a lot of things about this recording. The cast includes some fine singers. Rosemary Joshua, Gerald Finlay, Maria Christina Kiehr and Robin Blaze, to name a few. The orchestra performs well and the choir is good.

However, some of the singers let this recording down. I am mainly talking about Dominique Visse, who I normally admire very much. Dominique Visse turns parts of this recording into a freak show. Why this was allowed to happen is a mystery to me. The duets with the other countertenor sound ridiculous, it is as if monsieur Visse was throwing a tantrum.

There are a number of better recordings of the great opera on the market - Christie, Pinnock, Hogwood, Gardiner and Mackerras have all made some very good recordings of this work.

So many Didos...so many excellent roles. It's about finding which one works for you. No doubt each one will have its share of attractions and disappointments, as this one does for me.

Beginning with Dido herself, Dawson is superb. Her singing is invested with feeling. The lament, with its haunting pleas, is particularly well done; the penultimate "remember me" ending with a sigh to match her ebbing life's blood. The beautifully macabre aside, Dido is matched by Joshua's bright and mellifluous Belinda. In fact, the female roles are very well done. Special mention needs to be made of Bickley's biting sorceress. Her vocal talent is used to display the sorceress' venom and spite, rather than the more common hysterics.

Aeneas and the sailor are sound performances from Finley and Brown, respectively. They get high marks without needing any distinction points. Their contributions are, after all, comparatively small. But they are more than adequate. Then, of course, we have a splendid performance from Blaze as the countertenor Spirit...ethereal and mystifying as it should be. Indeed, we would expect most countertenors to have more or less the same impact...then Visse opens his mouth. This is what has scarred the recording in a way that goes beyond the dramatic effect intended by the composer and librettist.

Visse, it seems, has decided to be the Drama-queen of Carthage and outdo the sorceress. The result is nothing of Senessino's legendary upstages, but an overdone, raucous and embarrassingly camp display (borrowing the word from the editorial review). Visse, and Visse ALONE, has removed 2 stars from what should be a 5-star recording. This should not have been: his cohort witch, Wallace, by comparison gave a splendid account of the countertenor voice in this role. In addition, this recording has an unexpected and beautiful 'filler' ("Then since our charmes have sped"). Moreover, the conducting is excellent (Jacobs is here in his element).

Should you manage to overcome Visse's marring of your sport, this recording should be thoroughly enjoyable. Alas the flaw.

This should have been an intense recording, for Dido deserves that. I don`t know Haim recording, I do know Hogwood: very well done, but sometimes a bit "English" for instance in the overture he should have been more passionate and better articulate the fast passages. Not ideal but one of the best. A great production, Hogwood assembles the "who is who" in Early music in Britain, I think. And he got a strong band (very huge, comparing with parrott) with even "period" stage effects. And what a nice booklet !!!

What about Jacobs? Yes, colourfull with the fewer resources he has (half Hogwood's). He likes tempi extremes (not a bad thing). However, I find too strange the deliberate slow tempi of some witch choruses. On the contrary, I like "venom" Sorcerers (the soprano here is good, could have been better), not a match for David Thomas (Hogwood). The witches (2 countertenors) are the best in discography. Visse steals place. And so what? he adds poignancy to his role. I wish to see how the competence pales when listening to his part. Finlay is good, but not so "period". Belinda, as Dido, sounds very "operatic" and looks so similar to Dido ... Hogwood and Harnoncourt show more (necessary) contrast between these women. The rest are very good, in general. Chorus is very proffesional, also very good (but again, Hogwood's is better). Spirit is a match with Chance (Hogwood). And Jacobs: he discovers interesting options like repeating the slow section of the overture. He adds colour (dinamic contrasts) to some passages. But Hogwood, I think, in spite of the famous "phlematic English" mood, paces drama better. To sum up, Jacobs is not the best, he even would have been one of the second choices but he don`t even get that post for 3 reasons: 1- strange tempi in some sections. Add his choices about repeats, irregular. (The second act solution, interpolating some of Fairy queen, is not a problem. This does not make him succeed or fail his performance).

2- Nowadays we listen to guitarr dances (Hogwood, Parrott) because the libretto from 1689 tells that. So Why Jacobs omits them? Nowadays, seems unscholarly

3- most important criticism. Dido (Dawson - sorry, I never liked her) may sound a bit operatic to my taste. Not a problem if you want to give this opera a kind of vocal excitement. Indeed, her lament is very well done. Its tempo is slow, but very well sustained (better than Hogwood I think). A gem. But ... her singing does not differentiate from Belinda's. And her worst mistake ... ornamentation. Nowadays nobody should forget it, at least Jacobs (a front runner of HIP today). Look at Hogwood again and he does not loose any chance to show a great undestanding about ornamentation. Please look at dawson's "Ah Belinda" instead of reading those French magazine's reviews (and I include Gramophone) and try to find a SINGLE NOTE of ornaments: Purcell makes her repeat the first part of the aria, od course, to let the singer make ornaments. Here, absent. Sorry, I don`t forgive Jacobs. Is it clear that it is a "deadly sin" coming from him? A pity. As I said, he should have been better. Please, choose Hogwood.

Opera is one of the toughest genres for me to penetrate, although the 17th century British composer's one and only baroque-styled offering is slightly more manageable at times; best in instrumental segues or choral accompaniment, and not without squirm-inducing solos.