Handel - Amadigi di Gaula

George Frideric Handel (Composer), Eduardo Lopez Banzo (Conductor), Al Ayre Espanol (Orchestra), Maria Riccarda Wesseling (Performer), Elena de la Merced (Performer), Sharon Rostorf-Zamir (Performer), Jordi Domenech (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Maria Riccarda Wesseling, Elena de la Merced, Sharon Rostorf-Zamir, Jordi Domenech
• Orchestra: Al Ayre Espanol
• Conductor: Eduardo Lopez Banzo
• Composer: George Frideric Handel
• Audio CD (February 26, 2008)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: ambroisie (naive)
• ASIN: B000WHBTBU
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,877 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Opera News, Stephen Francis Vasta, November 2008

Amadigi di Gaula had its premiere in London in 1715. Its libretto, based on a medieval legend and encompassing such effects as a magically appearing sorceress, reflects the then-fashionable English taste for spectacle in operatic production. Musically, however, the opera is of chamber dimensions, involving just five soloists, and takes in some emotionally intimate moments. In this backward-looking piece -- it even ends with a brief ballet -- Handel doesn't attempt any structural innovations: the arias and duets are cast firmly in the tripartite da capo format. Still, he finds room for the occasional imaginative touch, as when he uses French-overture gestures in a few of the ritornelli to suggest tragic breadth, or has the two voices in a hitherto contrapuntal duet launch the "B" section in straight thirds.

Here more than in most "period" productions, the musical direction sets a strong overall tone. Eduardo López Banzo paces the show with bracing vigor and lively rhythmic address. He favors brisk, energetic tempos, some of which get the singers a bit flustered in the embellished repeats. But he's also attentive to melodic shape -- ensuring, for example, that all the "feminine" phrase-endings, musical and textual, are properly tapered -- and gives the singers time to color the more inward numbers. López Banzo encourages the strings to dig into the tone in the faster movements, eliciting some of the roughness once associated with early instruments. But the woodwinds are delicate or pungently expressive, as needed, and the principal oboe duets effectively with the one trumpet when asked. Save in the wheezy introduction to Amadigi's "T'amai," the orchestral sound is big, forward and full-bodied. This is no arid historical exhumation but a living, breathing piece of theater. . .

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent performance of another beautiful Handel opera-, March 4, 2008

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Todd Nolan (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Handel - Amadigi di Gaula (Audio CD)

This is a very well done recording of one of Handel's 'magic' operas. The ensemble Al Ayre Espanol specializes in Baroque music, so this Amadigi was a perfect match for them and for Handel fans who will probably want this even if they have the 1980s recording with Bernarda Fink, Natalie Stutzman, Eiddwen Harrhy, Jennifer Smith and conducted by Minkowski. That was a fantastic recording, and so is this. Instead of two sopranos & two mezzos for the leads, this Ambroisie CD set goes with a counter-tenor (Jorid Domenech as Dardano), a mezzo (Maria Riccarda Wesseling as Amadigi), and two sopranos (Sharon Rostorf-Zamir as sorceress Melissa and Elena de la Merced as Orianna). Wesseling and Rostorf-Zamir have performed and recorded Handel before (Teseo, Floridante, recital discs with Handel arias) and Merced has sung baroque and bel canto roles with major opera houses the last couple of years. She's very good as Orianna, and I hope she does more Handel in the future. Rostorf-Zamir and Wesseling are very good, and Merced's singing is meltingly beautiful. The Al Ayre group can match up with the best of the baroque chamber ensembles out there. Thorough and attractive booklet/libretto makes this one an easy recommendation.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent New Version of One of Handel's Most Beautiful Operas, March 21, 2008

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Nicholas A. Deutsch (Tarrytown, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Handel - Amadigi di Gaula (Audio CD)

Amadigi di Gaula (1715) was the fifth Italian opera that Handel wrote for London, and the last before he took up his duties for the newly formed Royal Academy. Like Rinaldo and Teseo, which preceded it, Amadigi is a "magic opera", a genre that always brought out the best in the composer; like them too it features a love-sick sorceress as a central figure, a character-type he was to return to with equally memorable results in Alcina (1735). (His remaining "magic opera" Orlando has a benevolent male sorceror in place of a malevolent female one.)
Amadigi is an absolutely wonderful piece, with a memorable score of great freshness, invention and youthful vitality - not a single weak number. There are two duets, an onstage death scene (very rare) and a ghost scene, all outstanding. Altho' there are a few puzzling moments in the plot (due to the libretto's compression from a 5-act French original), the story and conflicts are clear and the characters well-drawn. And with essentially only 4 characters and at 2 1/2 hours in length, it's one of Handel's most concise and intimate stage works.
This new recording, only the second so far, is excellent, and certainly fully equal in quality to Marc Minkowski's fine 1989 version (Erato). Perhaps the new one has a slight edge in sheer theatrical excitement, but the difference is marginal. Unlike Minkowski, conductor Eduardo Lopez Banzo has cast a countertenor (rather than a woman) as Dardanus, and this may matter to some listeners. (The role was originally sung by a woman, tho' a castrato took over later.) I should also note that on the new recording one aria, Oriana's sublime Siciliana "Gioie, venite in sen" loses its da capo (no doubt to fit the piece on 2 CDs - Banzo's overall timings run slightly longer than Minkowski's) and Melissa's "Io godo, scherzo e rido" is heard in a different setting from Minkowski's: similar in length and tone, but in duple rather than triple time. There is a good new English translation of the Italian text - Erato reprinted the Italian-English libretto from the 1715 premiere - as well as French and Spanish versions. Excellent sound. A fine achievement all round, strongly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent chivalric production., November 21, 2009

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Anna Shlimovich (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Handel - Amadigi di Gaula (Audio CD)

As previous reviewers noted, this is an excellent overall recording, with great singing and conducting. Again, we were fortunate enough in Boston to listen to this opera live, and although conducting and period instruments were excellent, the singing was variable, and Amadigi on this recoding is absolutely perfect.

It was interesting to get acquainted with the Knight Amadis, whose image inspired Cervantes. However, his character is just as selfish and shallow as that of Tancredi, a hero of Rossini's opera. But of course, these stories and characters are not made to be taken seriously, and exist only to support the most beautiful music.

One can hear that Amadigi is still an early Handel's opera, however alreay genius. Yet his later masterpieces, as Hercules and Semele are more balanced.

Overall, it is a highly recommended recording.