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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get this one, July 1, 2003
This review is from: Handel - Rinaldo (Audio CD)
It is indeed a luxury to have 3 decent recordings of Rinaldo on period instruments when so many of Handel's operas are still to be recorded, but if the name of René Jacobs appears on the last one, well, that's as good a reason to buy it as you are going to get. Jacobs is the star of the show, he does many splendid things and some rather weird ones, but: 1.he is never boring, 2.he knows what he is doing and why, and...3.he does it very well. Christopher Hogwood on the rival DECCA recording is quite simply no competition, he is bland, unimaginative and boring. Pity that DECCA didn't use Christophe Roussett instead. Jacob's cast is generally excellent but DECCA has 4 trump cards: Luba Orgonasova, Bernarda Fink, Gerald Finley and Cecilia Bartoli (of course). For sheer voice quality they are better than Jacobs' singers, but Jacobs sees that his cast make an even more vivid impression. More problematic in both recordings is the title role. Rinaldo is a bravura role, and demands a considerable voice. In a perfect world a young Marilyn Horne would have been ideal. David Daniels certainly has a lovely voice, but it's insufficient for this kind of roles, a coloratura mezzo is a much wiser solution. Vivica Genaux should have been ideal, but her voice seems too high for the role, more contralto generosity would had been appreciated in "Cara sposa". All in all I would still prefer Carolyn Watkinson in the old Malgoire recording (but the orchestral playing in that set leaves something to be desired), but if the choice is between Daniels and Geneaux, I would opt for her. The fabulous Freiburger Barockorchester quite outclasses Hogwood's band, their playing is nothing short of spectacular. Jacobs makes Rinaldo a very theatrical experience on audio, it is very enjoyable and I don't think we will get another one in decades.
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39 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Inga Kalna et al., May 13, 2003
This review is from: Handel - Rinaldo (Audio CD)
There is always room for a new recording of any opera and if not for the crisis in music industry, we would be still getting a couple of new Figaros, Traviatas, Aidas etc. per year. Handel, however, is not Mozart or Verdi (in terms of popularity) and it takes a particularly huge dose of courage in this time of crisis to do what Harmonia Mundi did by releasing this new "Rinaldo" only two years after a successful recording under Christopher Hogwood appeared on the market. This is exactly what we expect of HM - courage in undertaking musical projects, regardless their 'bankability' and the highest standards of execution (also applied to the packaging) that put "Universal" to shame. I was eagerly looking forward to this new set, hoping that it would help me discover the beauty of an opera I wasn't able to appreciate in Hogwood's recording. It had its merits, to be sure, but the limp and antiheroic David Daniels made it impossible to listen to, at least for me. Bartoli was a great Almirena, but - with her partner so effeminate - she sounded too heroic, almost like "Freedom Guiding the People" in the famous painting by Delacroix. Well, that's at least what I thought before I heard the present recording. Rene Jacobs is one of my favorite conductors of Baroque music. His passion for the music he performs is never in doubt and this always makes his recordings rather special, as does his experimenting with the scores which always adds to the music's flavour. Those were the qualities I expected to find in this set and I found them in abundance - Jacob's conducting is certainly a great asset of this new "Rinaldo". But opera is first and foremost about singing and it is the singing that I found rather undistinguished in this set, something that really surprised me because Jacobs had always a great ear for voices. Vivica Genaux's Rinaldo certainly isn't an improvement over Daniels's. Where Daniels lacked power, Genaux lacks both power and charisma. The voice does have a masculine hue but it doesn't sound particularly heroic. I also don't find this voice very appealing; to me it is more suitable for a villain than a hero, but it is an esthetic question and has nothing to do with Genaux's singing which is accomplished enough (though I found her much more interesting on her Farinelli disc) and which many will probably find gripping. To me she doesn't stand out as the eponymous hero and doesn't dominate the opera as she should. She sings her arias without much expression, which is particularly bothersome in those more contemplative ones ( there is no sense of lament in "Cara sposa"), but she clearly enjoys displaying her rather impressive vocal technique in such showy numbers as "Venti, turbini" or "Or la tromba".
Almirena is also a problem. Miah Persson has a lovely voice and apparently a lovely face but her portrayal of Almirena is bland and rather chilly and, frankly, I don't always understand it. The scene before "Lascia ch'io pianga" is puzzling to me: is Almirena a damsel in distress or is she a cunning flirt trying to seduce her oppressor? In this context, the famous aria sounds as if it taken from another story. Persson also exaggerates in recitativi, drags the words trying to give them some dramatic accent but it rarely works well and simply sounds strange. That's one of the reasons I find her Almirena rather graceless although judging from the pictures the singer doesn't lack grace herself. But Jacobs has a marvellous Armida! Actually, each recording of "Rinaldo", including Malgoire's, boasts a fine Armida, but Inga Kalna seems particularly impressive. She must be a very young singer and this touch of youth makes her Armida rather special, if not necessarily better than the matronly and rather more formidable sorceress of Orgonasova for Hogwood. Kalna's vocal technique is stupendous but what really strikes me most is the seemingly unlimited range of colours in her voice which she uses with an almost devilish skill. What an accomplished young singer! Other roles are taken successfully but they are rarely memorable. The only singer who seems to be making a real effort to give his character some flesh is James Rutherford in the role of Argante. Although he doesn't eclipse his predecessors, particularly the splendid Gerald Finley for Hogwood, he leaves a very good impression indeed.In the role of Goffredo I decidedly prefer the inspired Bernarda Fink to Jacobs's Lawrence Zazzo who is vocally impressive but lacks character, a problem affecting many countertenors. Disappointment with this new recording made me listen again to Malgoire and Hogwood. I always thought that Malgoire's was a very good recording and it would be a truly great one if only the conducting was a bit better. All the singers are deeply in character, the delivery of the dialogues is natural and vivid, diction is perfect and there is this palpable feeling of cooperation between the singers that distinguishes so many productions of those years. But my greatest surprise came with the Hogwood. All of a sudden I found it absolutely gripping and all my earlier reservations simply vanished. Is it because Jacobs was so disappointing? Maybe, but that can't explain everything. There is really something old-fashioned about Hogwood's "Rinaldo", the sense of total dedication of all involved that distinguishes great recordings. I don't know why it wasn't obvious to me earlier but if it is indeed the new set that caused this awakening, I am the more happy for that. There is always room for a new recording of any opera. Yes, that's true and the popularity of this new set only proves that my reservations expressed above may be unfounded, but I still think that instead of this rather pale "Rinaldo" Jacobs could have given us a recording of another obscure opera by an equally obscure composer, something that nobody does as well as he.
But having learned my lesson with the Hogwood, I wouldn't be surprised if one day I warm to this new recording and find it as captivating as many no doubt will at first hearing. Four stars instead of three then, to account for my fallible judgement. (Kicek)
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply an amazing performance, top to bottom, November 20, 2003
This review is from: Handel - Rinaldo (Audio CD)
This recording shows exactly what Handel and Baroque Opera in general are able to do, when handled by the right conductor/singers/musicians. This music is never boring, never "reserved, emotionally cool, etc." or any other adjectives sometimes used to describe (bad) performances from the genre. It's more music than drama, YES, but that's to be expected from this period, and with music and an approach this good, who needs "dramatic cohesion" anyway? Handels' music here is full of surprises, in terms of the sequence of arias presented here. Colorful orchestration, interesting vocal melodies and turns of phrase, plenty of room for both technical and expressive virtuoso singing, all combine into a springboard for conductor Jacobs and the Frieburg Baroque Orchestra to make the music become personal and really become something more than what's written on the page. Immediately recognizable is the sound of Jacob's orchestra: it's crisp but never metallic, intense and full of emotion (compare to the sounds of the strings on recordings by Manze of other Handel works), and lets Handel's voicings, harmonies, orchestrations, etc. really shine through. I'm not a music theorist, but Jacobs alllows anyone to hear what Handel is doing within the orchestral parts, and not just through them i.e. why he voices the strings and/or winds one way versus another at different points in the piece. Jacobs also allows the musicians considerable improvistory freedom: there's too many to mention, but a good example is the 4(!) harpsichord solos in Armida's showy aria "Vo Far a Guerra." These and other ad-lib parts show off the players' chops in an effort to make the music sound alive and not like a museum piece that is being dusted off for historical interest. Of course most people listen to opera(s) primarily for the singers, and I don't feel that this set is deficient in that part at all. Some reviewers didn't care for some/all of the singers, but personally I feel they all contribute something unique and exciting to the performance. Inga Kalna's Armida covneys the right amount of emotional uncertainty in the character: her music expresses love for the hero alongside anger and menace, in a series of arias that can be intsnely longing or searingly furious. She handles all of these with technical and melodic displays that are quite impressive. Rutherford's Argante is sung with confidence that allows him to portray the spooky, sinister side of the villain. Perrson's Almirena is actually quite varied: she is able to express the militarisitc tone of a general's daughter in "Combatti di forte," which is sung with an upbeat lilt that makes it "swing" in a way, while showing the sensitivity and delicateness of her in the famous "Lascia Chio pianga." Lawrence Zazzo as the leader of the Christian army Goffreddo has a truly unique counter-tenor voice. The timbre is full and round, not nasal, feminine, limp, etc. like many counter-tenors; I hope he does a recital disc soon. The other two counter-tenors really don't hold up too well: Dumaux is tolerable and comptetent but lackluster, and Visse is just plain annoying (thank goodness he has a very small role). Finally, Vivica Genaux in the title trole has received many mixed responses. In my opinion, and it's only an opinion, she's amazing in up-tempo numbers, handling the runs and coloratura brillinatly (try her Farinelli CD!), but on the slower, more melodic pieces she sounds a bit uninvolved (her recent Bel Canto outing shows this deficieny). However all in all she does a good job, and the sound of her voice may or may not be to everyone's liking, so listen and see what you think. Not a brief review, but this set is amazing and will continue to reveal more and more delights every time you listen to it. Pick this up especially if you want a good introduction to what Handel is capable of, or if you enjoy Handel and want a particularly daring, exciting interpretation of one of his better works.
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