Handel - Sosarme / Deller · Ritchie · Herbert · Evans · Watts · Saint Celicia Orch. · A. Lewis

George Frideric Handel (Artist), Anthony Lewis (Artist), Margaret Ritchie, William Herbert, Nancy Evans, Helen Watts Alfred Deller (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 30, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Opera D'oro
• ASIN: B00005OKS5
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #450,043 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Overture - The Saint Cecilia Orch/Anthony Lewis

2. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 1: Di mio padre al furore

3. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 1: Rendi'l sereno al ciglio

4. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 1: Giusti Numi... Forte inciampo al suo furore

5. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 1: Melo, mio prence... Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori farfalla confusa

6. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 1: Come più dell'usato

7. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Sì, sì minaccia, e vinta l'ira

8. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Non più contese... La turba adulatrice

9. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 1: Amici, troppo oscuro torpe il valor nascosto

10. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 1: Dite pace, e fulminate

See all 18 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 2: Per le porte del tormento passan l'anime a gioir

2. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 2: Signor, tuo regio sangue di Bellona smorzò l'infausta face

3. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 2: Alle sfere della gloria alza i vanni un nobil cor

4. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 2: La pace sdegnerai?

5. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 2: Vado, vado al campo a combatter col pianto

6. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 2: Mio sposo, ahi qual orror... In mille dolci modi al sen ti stringerò

7. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 2: Parmi ch'un dolce raggio... Vola l'augello del caro nido

8. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 3: Mi segue la Regina, aiuto, o prodi!

9. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 3: S'io cadrò per tuo consiglio

10. Sosarme, re di Media, opera, HWV 30: Act 3: Melo, dov'è'l tuo zelo?... Cuor di madre e cuor di moglie

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars get it!, March 11, 2003

By 

Roger W. Smith (Maspeth, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Handel - Sosarme / Deller · Ritchie · Herbert · Evans · Watts · Saint Celicia Orch. · A. Lewis (Audio CD)

This recording was originally released in 1955 on Decca. I bought and still own an LP of it that was issued on the L'Oiseau-Lyre label.

I bought the boxed LP set (and have since purchased the CD) because of my love of Handel. I had never heard "Sosarme," which seems to have hardly ever been recorded -- for all I know, this may be the only recording (?). Let me assure you, the music is gorgeous. To me, this opera was (for a Handel-lover) a revelation.

I happen very much to like these old Handel (and other Baroque, e.g., Purcell) performances that were recorded on the Decca label on the 1950s and conducted by Anthony Lewis. They were hard-to-find records when I purchased a few of them on LP in the seventies. They seem not to be available on CD, for the most part.

The performance on this recording by the group (Lewis, Ritchie, Watts, Deller, etc.; harpsichordist Thurston Dart; The Saint Anthony Singers and Saint Celia Orchestra) seem to do Handel justice; I really loved it. Nothing seems rushed or "over the top" to this discerning but non-specialist listener. The original set consisted of three LP's. It is not a live performance but a studio recording.

Alfred Deller, the countertenor, is magnificent.

This set, which consists of two CDs, is a bargain, and a real find!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine Transfer of a beautiful performance, January 27, 2007

By 

Paul E. Hartman "pehrtmn" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Handel - Sosarme / Deller · Ritchie · Herbert · Evans · Watts · Saint Celicia Orch. · A. Lewis (Audio CD)

Despite the almost hysterical exaggerated criticism of the last reviewer (and I guess there's nothing worse than a singer-reviewer bitching about the perceived deficits of another singer!)I would not dismiss this recording UNLESS you insist on having your Handel 1) taken at a constantly brisk tempo (which to me is usually "Too Fast, sorry"); 2)filled with countertenors, such as some mentioned in the last review (which to me is "The fewer countertenors, the better"); 3) played only on so-called "original" instruments by the new batch of musicologist-conductors (which to me is sometimes "great" but sometimes also "Good Lord, what hideous unmusical scraping noises, what an uninspired unmusical performance").

Let's make it simple: If you like the recordings of Johannes Somary or those on Vox by Rudolph Palmer or by Richard Auldon Clark, then you should enjoy this recording.

Margaret Ritchie, the Elmira, is a well-known name to any with even a passing knowledge of the British musical scene from the 1940's and 1950's; HARDLY a singer only worthy of "G&S" as insultingly mentioned in the last review; she made a number of famous recordings justly praised at the time. True, her voice is not that of a younger singer, but then the same could be said of many others, e.g. Maggie Teyte. But here she manages the Handelian fioritura with ease, and ?the scooping so offensive to the previous reviewer, well I'm at a loss to see where this occurs often or even obtrusively; that criticism seems like a bunch of exaggerated nonsense to me!

If you don't like Alfred Deller, then that's one thing; but he sings expressively and competently here. Likewise, the lesser roles here are taken by capable singers, Helen Watts included, a veteran of many a fine Handel recording.

True, the general tempos are on the slow side, but I for one prefer a more genteel expressive way with Handel; and this is not a work noted for its wild dramatic scenes anyway. Anthony Lewis, a fine early conductor of Baroque music, does however respond with impetus, when needed, in the choruses, and gives the singers ample room enabling them to give full meaning to the text.

Opera d'Oro has done a better job of transferring this onto CD than the previous issue on Theorema; the latter had too much surface hiss. And I have not heard the Andromeda label version of this performance recently issued on CD.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Performance, April 4, 2007

By 

Paul Van de Water (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Handel - Sosarme / Deller · Ritchie · Herbert · Evans · Watts · Saint Celicia Orch. · A. Lewis (Audio CD)

Dating from the 1950s, this performance is one of the first complete recordings of a Handel opera--and one of the first with most of the voices in their original register. Although it not what we would now call an historically informed performance, it features some of the best baroque specialists of its era, and it wears its years lightly. Gramophone's reviewer considers it superior to the more recent recording by Somary on Newport.

Another option is the recent recording of Handel's Fernando, conducted by Alan Curtis, on Virgin Classics. Fernando is Handel's first draft of Sosarme--the words and music are essentially the same, but the names and places are changed. For example, Fernando, king of Castille (an historical figure), is turned into Sosarme, king of Media (ancient Persia), to avoid offending King George II. The Curtis recording is a period performance in modern sound, but Lewis's pioneering effort still has much to recommend it.

Paul N. Van de Water