Customer Reviews

Handel: Alcina

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

 

 

Alcina, Giulio Cesare, Ariodante and Orlando are Handel's greatest operas, and thanks to Alan Curtis and a quite formidable cast, here we have a winner. Alcina has been lucky on records, it was the first Handel opera to be recorded both with famous stars and with all the roles sung in the original registers, the 1961 DECCA recording with Sutherland, Berganza and Freni; then EMI gave us in 1985 the first recording with period instruments, and some 10 years ago ERATO was at hand in Paris to record some memorable performances at the Palais Garnier with both, opera stars and period instruments, boasting Renée Fleming, Susan Graham and Natalie Dessay in the leading roles and the exquisite musicians of Les Arts Florissants under William Christie in the pit. It was the hottest ticket in Paris at the time and listening to the recording you will see why. The new Archiv recording, much better than the Rodelinda with the same team, is a good match for the ERATO version. Joyce DiDonato, surprisingly singing soprano, is glorious in the title role. Her Alcina is memorable as an interpretation and as a piece of magnificent singing. I'm sure, in years to come, this recording will be cited as some of DiDonato's finest work. Less well known is Maite Beaumont, but she sings a virile and secure Ruggiero, perhaps not as individual as Susan Graham, but very good indeed. Karina Gauvin covers herself in glory in "Tornami a vagheggiar", not even Joan Sutherland would dare to steal the aria from her. Il Complesso Barocco is as stylish and elegant as ever, and Alan Curtis obviously loves the piece. Some think that the ERATO recording is too slow, and are uncomfortable with the opulent tones of Renée Fleming, but I think that William Christie, being the great opera conductor that he is, knows better than anyone how to work the drama of the piece. His conducting is a little more passionate and taut than Curtis', and it must be remembered: it is a live recording, with the pros and cons that come with it. I love both recordings and feel lucky to own them both. You should own at least one.

This being the Handel commemoration year, we Handel lovers are really being bathed in bliss with all these new Handel recordings, and we were also treated to the re-release in one box of six spectacular earlier recordings of Handel's operas by Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco on Virgin Classics -- the oldest going back 30 years!. Having spent the last couple of days listening in amazement to some of those earlier recordings, I could not resist putting on the new Alcina recording as soon as it arrived. I really didn't think that it would be possible for Curtis to do even better than his recent recording of Tolemeo, which (with Gauvin and Hallenberg) certainly outdid his already excellent previous recording of Floridante (with the all-star cast of Mijanovic, DiDonato, Invernizzi, Rostorf-Zamir and Priante). But on my first listening of Alcina, first of all it was obvious that this is the best performance that DiDonato has ever done -- she has finally fully found her ideal persona. And it may well be Gauvin's finest performance to date as well. The rich brightness of the sound comes right out of the HiFi and into your listening space as if the singers (and the musicians) were actually right there in your living room. Maite Beaumont -- a name totally new to me -- is also absolutely superb. And so is another new discovery -- the tenor Kobie van Rensburg. And helped by the fact that this is one of Handel's finest operas, the whole recording just reverberates with the consummate sound of an obvious all-time classic recording. People will still be listening to this in a hundred years -- though I won't be around to enjoy the verification of my prediction. That's OK -- I WILL be around to verify my prediction that it will win Opera Recording of the Year. While there are many great Handelian musicians, and quite a few great Handel conductors, it is obvious that Curtis has snatched the first prize in the competition to make the best recordings in this glorious 250th-anniversary Handel year. And now our next treat is Ezio! You will not believe DiDonato on this recording, who steals the stage even from Renee Fleming's recording of the same part.

I don't have time just now to re-listen to this excellent recording and I can't review it in detail without having it fresh in my mind. I merely want to state that it's the best performance of Handel's "Alcina" I've ever heard, either on a recording or live. The whole cast is not only superb of voice, but they all sing with the same highly consistent technique. That separates this recording from the older one by Bill Christie, on which Renée Fleming sang the lead role as if she had learned music as a different language from the others.... which, in fact, she had. If one singer on this 3-CD recording steals the show, by the way, it is Sonia Prina, but Joyce Di Donato has all the arts of a superb baroque soprano: 1) the ability to sing a straight and lovely tone at any dynamic and with accurate pitch; 2) grace! and flexibility over the faster passages and ornamentations.

And then there's the orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco, conducted by Alan Curtis! This, amici miei, is baroque instrumentalism that makes sense to the ears.

I've just written a review, probably a controversial one, of the 1959 recording of Alcina featuring Joan Sutherland. I said in that review that although Sutherland's performance deserved historical kudos, it is unlistenable now, when really fine performances are available. A major problem with that old recording is the ponderous romantic orchestra. You can hear "samples" of both recordings here on the amazon, and thus you can either confirm or vehemently reject my evaluation.

This opera is filled with so many wonderful music.

American mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonate sung the title role. She is outstanding in this recording. She is technically and emotionally expressive singer. She is wonderful in singing Handel. There is exquisite beauty in her voice, especially in her upper range.

This is the first time I listened to Alan Curtis. Comparing with the refined agility and vibrancy of the orchestrations by Marc Minkowski or Diego Fasolis, Alan Curtis's orchestration is calm and subtle. His music is sensitively detailed but lacking certain liveliness for my taste.

It is one of the reasons this recording felt not so exciting than other Handel recordings.

Another reason is that all the singers in this production have very beautiful voices but they have much less expressions and more or less subdued in their singings exception of Joyce DiDonate.

This is a very nice recording of Handel's Alcina. All the reviewers here remind that this performance IS the true Baroque style, while the older recordings, namely Boynge and Leitner and Christie, are NOT.
I do not pretend to be knowledgeable about what IS Baroque.
Entirely from the muscial angle, I do not think that the entire cast here outshone the 1959 Cologne cast.
Joyce Didonato as Alcina gives a emotionally charged and stylish performance, sung with more pathos and drama than Joan Sutherland, though strictly speaking, her voice is not on par with Sutherland's crystal clear timbre under Leitner's concert performance of this opera. Karina Guavin as Morgana is perhaps the true star of this cast. I wonder why she's not been casted as Alcina herself.
The other characters, Ruggiero's Maite Beaumont, despite the praise accorded to her, is not really the best if you compare her with Teresa Berganza's performance under Bonynge. She has the right timbre for the role, but her habit of singing with 'hairpin legato' and scooping on notes are not, I suppose, what is being demanded in the Baroque style. Ruggiero is not an easy character to handle, and I wonder if South African countertenor Christopher Ainsle, whom I've seen live in this role giving a totally comeptent performance, will some day record this role.
And as for Oronte, I have not heard any one out singing Monti under Leitner in the Cologne performance. Sonia Prina sung a sterling Bradamante, though.
Much commendation should be given to the conductor Alan Curtis and his Il Complesso Barocco. Curtis' treatment of the da capo in the arias of the opera should likewise be highly recommended as being the best treatment ever of those marvellous pieces.

This recording is a serious attempt to make a modern interpretation of one of the best, if not the best ever, Handel's operas - Alcina. Inevitably, it competes with past achievements, including the one with Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge and more recent with Renee Fleming and William Christie. The overall result of Joyce Di Donato/Alan Curtis partnership is somewhat a success, but it has unsurmountable points of disappointment - the main two issues are the choice of voices and the overall style of musical approach; both flaws are thus not as much on singers but on the musical direction of Alan Curtis.

The first problem is, paradoxically, concerns the best singer on the recording - Joyce DiDonato. She is a tremendous mezzo-soprano, someone with total control of her voice, volume, tuning; in short, a true virtuoso. Her solo arias are remarkable for the degree of dynamic control and the range of vocal colorings that she imparts. The emotional charge of her role is stunningly rendered, from sweet joy of peaceful reciprocated sensual love in "Di', cor mio, quanto t'amai" to the grave despair and resignation of "Mi restano lagrime". Her "Ombre pallide" is extraordinary in richness of feeling and vocal mastery.

However, her tessitura is still a mezzo-soprano, and the voice issue becomes evident when duets and trios are sung with Ruggiero (another mezzo-soprano Maite Beaumont) and Bradamante (alto Sonia Prina); the vocal blend does not dazzle in the absence of a true soprano; the three lower voices do not stress the strength of another. The sad example is a great trio in the Third Act "Non e amor, ne gelosia" - the texture of this piece appears monotonous and bland. Compare it with that of Sutherland/Berganza/Sinclair rendering - and you will hear how it SHOULD sound; the voices pop in and out in a marvelous succession, as sparkling stars, or weave together as a unionised constellation. But here it is just a professionally sung trio, with no particular bond between all three voices.

Maite Beaumont as a Ruggiero is very good; she delivers as good a performance as Susan Graham on ReneeFleming/William Christie recording; but she lacks some nuance that Teresa Berganza was able to deliver in her dual-faced Ruggiero; it is a complicated role because the transformation of a seemingly ardent devoted lover into a stone-hearted traitor needs to be rendered with a special conviction, which could be called emotional coloring. Beaumont's Ruggiero suffers from the same problem as the remainder of the cast on this recording - while the singing is professionally correct, never out of pitch and always with full control, it hears as deliberately emotionally distant, making it cold and withdrawn, while this particular opera is all about blazing passions and psychological nuances. This Ruggiero is too even throughout the opera in exposing his seemingly never changing emotional state.

"Vorrei vendicarmi" by Bradamante (Sonia Prina) is again a demonstration of vocal agility, but it is too fast and those expertly sung rapid passages leave the listener cold - the wrath of the deceived bride is lost somewhere in the unstoppable staccatos. Sonia Prina was phenomenal in "Orlando" in Paris last fall, and her Bradamante is very much a shadow of Orlando, which is somewhat justified, since Orlando is supposed to represent virtue. She sings with a lot of vehemence, which is quiet appropriate for an unyielding figure of retribution that she represents; yet too often this shooting-gun manner of singing is taking her too far, and her role becomes a show of vocal galore but shallow in emotional depth. As aforementioned, it seems to be a peculiar style that Alan Curtis wanted to adopt for this recording.

Morgana (Karina Gauvin) sounds particularly poor, and not solely due to Karina Gauvin voice. Here the direction of Alan Curtis seems to totally wither and extinguish the Royal Fireworks of the most radiant and joyful aria in the whole opera - "Tornami a vagheggiar" and instead turn it into Water Music, placid and evenly flowing. The tempo is incredibly slow, more fitting for some somber contemplation that for an outburst of passion. Numerous other singers sing this aria to bright sparkles; the voice of Gauvin is also too darkly colored for such a flippant daffy character as Morgana, whose twin in Orlando is Dorinda, sung with the best success by light voices as Emma Kirkby, Kathleen Battle or Natalie Dessay. The choice of heavy-colored Gauvin for Morgana only adds to a narrow ranged vocal palette of this recording; it is also a downside that she does not dazzles us with anything in this showcase aria. Compare Tornami a vagheggiar" of Karina Gauvin with Sutherland or Natalie Dessay! It is just different music...Where is a gentle emotion, dazzling passion? Gauvin singing is a vocal show, with no soul or body behind - there is not even a trace of the naughty charmer Morgana in Gauvin's sound. The aria which is one of the greatest showpieces of this opera loses all lustre and sounds boring and tedious!

Oberto (Laura Cherici) is again too darkly colored; one can only compare this interpretation with Mirella Freni's; this Oberto is rather Turandot or Tosca, but not a young innocent boy lost without his dear father. Mirella Freni in Oberto is simply sensational. Her "Chi m'insegna il caro padre" is full of triste foreboding and subdued torment; but the glimpse of hope in "Tra speme e timore" is charmed with a naïve ray of joy. And her "Barbara! Io ben lo so" just overwhelms with the most glorious tone Freni is unmatched for. Laura Cherici is not even close, and here one understand what is Mirella Freni - it is not just the voice; it is an ability to bring out the slightest nuance, deepest emotion of the role.

One pleasant surprise is the tenor Kobie van Rensburg singing Oronte - it is a pleasure to listen to a great tenor in this frequently disdained role, filled with mediocre singers. I like him here better than as Orfeo in Monteverdi's opera, with Jean-Claude Malgoire conducting a production that is available on DVD. Again, it is striking that Oronte aria "Un momento di contento" starts with exactly the same melody as in Moteverdi's "Il Coronazione" final duet "Pur ti miro" - I mentioned it in my review of "Alcina" with Sutherland/Berganza/Bonynge.

The overall impression, apart from incomparable virtuosity of Joyce, is somewhat very dry. This Alcina is so devoid of characterisation of personages that it could be rather called an oratorio - so detached are the singers from the emotions of their roles. It seems that they were tasked much more to demonstrate their vocal abilities than to convey extraordinary passions that permeant this particular opera. Could it be that Alan Curtis academic background made him concentrate on just taking the right notes at the right time without giving much care to make each character sound according to her dramatic presence. At times, the sound was quite harsh and even unpleasant to listen, and this will not be for me an Alcina to return to for beauty, magic and sheer pleasure.

I'd say Bonynge direction is better that Alan Curtis on this recording, even with da capo and other cuts, and William Christie is more expressive with this particular musical text.

Joyce DiDonato Intelligent, technically assured artistry of the highest level mixed with consistently beautiful tone and keen emotional involvement: she is certainly a great Alcina the enchantress; for her singing alone I recommend this recording; yet it did not topple Sutherland/Bonynge and Fleming/Christie. Joyce DiDonato somewhat colorless voice with the Alan Curtis academic, expertly, erudite and educated direction make an allusion to Nicolas Poussin's style in his later period - very learned but cold, motionless and flat, pure and clean as color White, but not profoundly moving or dramatic. A reference to the marvelous Poussin picture "Rinaldo and Armida" will conclude this review, and color an impression from this interpretation:

Rinaldo and Armida, from Torquato Tasso's Poem Gerusalemme Liberata Giclee Poster Print by Nicolas Poussin, 18x24

Can't get enough of this recording, I keep going back to it on my ipod.