Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - Handel Arias [Hybrid SACD - DSD]

Lorraine Hunt (Artist), George Frideric Handel (Composer), Harry Bicket (Conductor), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Orchestra), Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Performer), Stephen Stubbs (Performer), Phoebe Carrai (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Stephen Stubbs, Phoebe Carrai
• Orchestra: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
• Conductor: Harry Bicket
• Composer: George Frideric Handel
• Audio CD (August 10, 2004)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD
• Label: Avie
• ASIN: B00022LZW8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,647 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #42 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Historical Periods > Baroque (c.1600-1750)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laurel upon Laurel!, October 25, 2004

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - Handel Arias (Audio CD)

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is steadily, assuredly demonstrating to the music world that here is a voice of such beauty, warmth, and intelligence that she simply has no peers. While other singers who traverse the Handel or Bach repertoires do so with success and dignity, Hunt Lieberson transcends them all in her poignant ability to go directly to the composer's intentions while keeping the singing fresh, creatively alive and eloquently real. Her way with ornamentation, especially that of her da capo embellishments, is simply ravishing: brilliant technique for technique's sake never gets in the way of enhancing the beauty of the vocal line. The CD presents arias from two of Handel's operas (both of which Hunt Lieberson has performed successfully on stage) - "Theodora" and "Serse" - and an added cantata "La Lucrezia". As the crowning light of her recording she performs with the gifted Harry Bicket and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the collaboration is perfect! A compleat singer, this, and an inestimable gift to the music world.

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson (1954-2006), supreme Handelian, July 6, 2006

By 

The Cultural Observer - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - Handel Arias (Audio CD)

I have never heard a voice purer of tone, more flexible in phrasing, and so gorgeously produced in a homogeneous column of sound such as this artist in Handel's repertoire. It is very tastefully sung (unlike a certain person whose name begins with R and ends with enaaay Fleming) and so dramatically touching that one could not help but feel that this repertoire finally has found its instrument. And how sad it is to know that this instrument has passed away two days ago. Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson died two days ago in her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico of breast cancer. It is such a huge loss to the opera world, as she is an artist who is still experiencing the prime of her career. The voice is just so beautiful, the tone so pure, that I lament that we can no longer hear any great roles from this artist. She will be missed.

83 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lorraine Hunt.....You Bloody Legend, September 19, 2004

By 

David Greco - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - Handel Arias (Audio CD)

Words are quite useless to describe the divine voice of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, there are not enough favourable adjectives one could give to praise this highly intelligent and dramatic musician. Ms Hunt has a voice and instinct so highly refined as to leave most singers for dead when it comes perfect articulation and phrasing and getting to the raw nerve of the piece. Her commitment to exploring the total pallate of colours possible for the human voice yealds sounds oftern too beautiful to bare.

Being a singer myself I can only say thankyou to Ms Hunt for one of the best singing lessons Ive every had in my life-listening to her Irene from Theodora instilled in me the importance and appreciation for exploring all the dramatic shades of colour a piece of music has to offer. Suddenly singing becomes more than an 'in your face-stand up and deliver' art form, but an interactive, truely human and utterly fragile and sensitive genre.
God bless you you true singing Diva. If only the everyone was made to listen to you for 5 minutes a day, what a world we would live in.

Oh yeah, this Disk presents all of Lorraine Hunt's efforts form the Sellars production of Handel's AMAZING opera/oratorio Theodora from Glynborne. The arias are amongst the most touchingly beautiful and richely crafted works of Handels output. They have changed the way I listen to music full stop. 5 STARS FOR LORRAINE AND 5 STARS FOR THE MUSIC.