Customer Reviews

Handel: Oreste

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Finally, a recording which marries thoughtfully considered knowledge of Baroque style with glorious, golden-toned musical spontaneity. An elegant, tasteful presentation. Mary Ellen Nesi has a gorgeous, naturally full-bodied voice which can be contemplative, then suddenly fly up to effortless and thrilling high notes with perfect intonation. Conductor George Petrou is a perfect match for his orchestra, collaborating to explore the intricacies of Baroque style, finding a fine balance between interpretive extremes. As the narrative of Orestes unfolds, one feels the commitment of these artists to this tale from their homeland of Greece. Continuo accompaniments are fascinating and stylistically appropriate. The string section is clear, pure, yet resonant. I've become jaded about Handel recordings but this one I will play often for friends and family. It also makes for glorious background music!

I first heard this opera with some of the same singers, same conductor and different orchestra, at the new festival at Ancient Corinth. Despite some misgivings, I greatly enjoyed the performance, especially as the surroundings were magical - the Temple of Octavia in the archeological site was used as the 'set'- and the audience (of local people, not tourists), though unaccustomed to classical music, was very attentive.

I wondered whether I would enjoy it quite so much on CD - after all, there's no 'ambience' to make up for any faults. But my doubts dissolved at first hearing. All the singers, especially the female voices, are excellent (the Oreste and Ifigeneia especially); the orchestra and harpsichord are very good indeed. And though the opera itself may be a pasticcio, it's truly a beautiful one which stands perfectly well on its own.

This recording is a must for Baroque fans, if only to show that you don't need famous names to achieve a wonderful recording - just in-depth knowledge, spades of talent, and a true love of art.

For those of use who love Handel's operas, there is absolutely no reason to look down on a "pasticcio", or a work put together carefully out of music that the composer has already written for other works. Handel pasticcios can be as good as his original operas. And when one puts together a group of (mostly Greek) singers and musicians as good as the group assembled for this beautiful recording, one finds oneself in the face of another masterpiece of Handel's opera oeuvre. Because of the distinctive personalities of the soloists and the conductor, this recording is quite a different experience from the great Alan Curtis recordings (not to mention Diego Fasolis) that have been enriching the Handel repertoire jrecently. The fact is, because every one of Handel's operas has a distinctive feel and style, we are never bored on hearing new works, and the more we hear of them the more we enjoy the other great works that may come our way, dropping from the sky like mana from Heaven for those of us whose spiritual life is sustained by that mana. If Petrou's Camerata Stuttgart recordings of the Greek-themes operas can re-open to us more of Handel's great oeuvre, delighting us and refining our spirits at the end of a hard working day, then more power to them. This is a delightful recording, technically as well as in the quality of the musicians and soloists, and Handel lovers will certainly want to include it their collections -- without fail.

I was startled by the beauty of this Handel "pasticcio" opera recording, especially since I wasn't deeply moved by Petrou's other Handel obscure-opera recording, "Arianna in Creta". Here he uses many of the same Greek singers, all suprisingly good, but a different band, the Camerata Stuttgart. As the name would imply, a "pasticcio" is a work pasted together from previously used music. "Oreste" is a total self-pasticcio, meaning that Handel, working on the fly as usual, simply took music from his previous operas and stuck it together with a new libretto. While modern ears may consider this somewhat of a creative cheat (and more than a couple of Londoners at the premieres of these types of works felt the same way, too), there's a kind of positive side to this: these works function of a kind of "greatest hits" vehicle for Handel. This is the sense I get from this recording of "Oreste". For example, the highlight of the opera is the beautiful duet "Oh, mia cara.." between Oreste and Ermione (Mary-Ellen Nesi and Maria Mitsopolou)surely comes from another work...I just can't place which one. Petrou seems to have excellent control of the pacing and "arc" of this work.

It's been said enough in other reviews about great Handel's "pasticcio" and how it's different from his original operas. I absolutely agree that though he used some of the "hits" from his best operas it turned out to be the right "vehicle" and also with using a different libretto and adding new sinfonia and dances the final result is stunning like an absolutely new opera, and the recording itself is of very high quality in all respects - Petrou as the conductor, musicians' work and, of course, the singers. I also want to emphasize that this recording of Oreste as well as of Tamerlano is so special and is different from all the other numerous CDs I've ever had in my life as all MDG recordings are produced in the natural acoustics of specially chosen concert halls without any kind of sound-modifying manipulation, and I can really feel the difference. It's difficult to explain but if you compare the sound in these recordings with all the others the listening experience is absolutely new and unique. The first thought which occurs is that the sound is absolutely natural and you as if were present at the performance itself. I haven't had such a feeling listening to any other CD of different recording companies. But this music and singing is so precious that it would be a pity to use it as "background music". I play it only on special occasions as a special gift. For just "background music" I can use pop.

In the other reviews it was absolutely fairly mentioned what great female voices there are in this all Greek team recorded by this German company with the most natural, best sound possible. I think that it's the best decision as it's about Greeks (based on Aristotelian drama) and takes place on the Greek territory at that time. Who but the Greeks themselves can express the Greek characters better? All the singers in this recording have very beautiful, specific, rich in tone and warm voices. But I also want to emphasize male voices - Petros Magoulas, a wonderful bass, and especially Nicholas Spanos with his unique countertenor voice, marvellously coloured with an angelic but very warm and human sounding voice, a distinct male, very masculine voice from a different, better world. His singing Filotete in this recording makes it absolutely and most of all special. His Filotete is a different character from his famous Tamerlano. He is more lyric, thoughtful, caring but by no means an angel and also a strong man's character and Spanos masterly shows it using the right expressive means according to the situation in the plot.

Not only his 3 arias - Orgogliosetto va l'augelletto, Qualor tu paga sei and Mostratevi serene are absolutely marvellous, sung with unique colour, great breath-taking high notes, the smoothest and most effortless technique, seamless breath control, wonderful cadenzas, great transitions and miraculous low notes, with very intelligent and exquisite coloratura without excessive, unnecessary embellishments, in style, what is called "not over sung" and not forced, which some other even great countertenors do to sound more "impressive" and take credit of the piece for themselves to show their own technical ability, virtuosity..., so not only his arias but also his participation in recitatives (like Udisti, Filotete?, Erminione, e quando mai, with Erminione and Pilade, Bella Ifigenia, in vano, with Ifigenia, and others) makes this recording unique and makes you want to listen to this opera again and again. Together with his Tamerlano this recording is my most valuable musical possession too. It's a must to have for all baroque music lovers. I hope to have soon recordings of other great Handel's and other great composers' operas made by this company in cooperation with Nicholas Spanos and all the Greek singers and musicians I heard here.