Customer Reviews

Patrizia Ciofi & Joyce DiDonato - Amor e gelosia (Handel Operatic Duets)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Alan Curtis has here chosen to bring to life some of the more memorable duets of Handel's many operas. Quite apart from chewing over some of the more well-known operas he has chosen some duets from Silla, Sosarme (Per le porte del tormento), Faramondo, Atalanta, Poro and Muzio Scevola, few of which have had decent recordings in the last number of years.

His band is small, one player per part, withe the resultant effect rather to make the duets seems like chamber music. There is a danger in that with duets such as Io t'abbraccio (end of Act 2 Rodelinda) taken out of context that the dramatic moment of the music would be lost. However, by arranging the duets in a sequence (as Curtis writes in the notes) from love's joy through self-doubt and jealousy, back to undying love, the duets out of context sound superb.

Both singers, Patrizia Ciofi (Soprano) and Joyce di Donato (Mezzo) sound thoroughly at home in the idiom of baroque opera, and in fact their cadenzas and ornamentation are delightfully understated, rather than the sort of shrieking 'I can go higher still' of some more lauded performers. I look forward to Curtis' forthcoming recordings of Lotario, Rodelinda and Radamisto, if these performers are to be retained.

In short this is a delightful enterprise showing the genious of Handel in dealing with the most basic of human emotions - love and jealousy. Well done Alan Curtis!

Handel was a master of his medium - his music paints with elegance and soul-stirring emotion upon the canvas of the human heart. His duets often exhibit particular indebtedness to Steffani (truly a genius of duet writing), and they are gorgeous duets indeed!

I note that some other reviewers quibble with a) duets only on this recording; and b) a sense of disjointedness.

Addressing both of those issues, let's admit that any recital disc is going to give some disjointedness in the absolute and literal sense. To take a portion of an opera out of its setting and perform it separately is a sort of amputation, be it an album of arias OR an album of duets. Should singers then avoid putting out solo recordings of Handel arias? I find no reason to come to THAT conclusion - and for the same reason, I have no quarrel at all with the recording of an album of Handel duets.

Of course, to enjoy Handel to the fullest degree, do get full recordings as well... but even in Handel's time, singers would pull specific bits of their roles out of context, perform them separately... so it's a time-honoured practice! Let us simply enjoy the high standard of the music without worrying about context in any recording of arias, duets, trios, or operatic scenes.

Handel's duets vary so much in their shape, melodies, harmonies, rhythms - there's plenty of variety. It comes down to a question of the singers involved having suitable voices, singing appropriately for the style, the playing of the orchestra, and the particular variety of duets chosen.

On all points, this album scores highly! Both Ms Ciofi and Ms Di Donato have beautiful voices, clearly trained in baroque singing, and they have equally clearly put in a lot of work to achieve a lovely blend and similar approach within these duets. What a joy to hear gifted singers perform these duets with such intelligence, emotional involvement and lovely, lovely tone!

This recording is a favourite of mine - not just because I perform many of the duets on this CD with another soprano, but because I am genuinely delighted to hear appropriately performed Handel singing in a duet album. I've found fault with some other duet albums because I consider them under-rehearsed, insufficiently blended, and inappropriately embellished - but this album shows none of those faults, and I am very happy to recommend it highly and without reservation. Beautiful singing, beautiful works - you can scarcely wish for more!

The programme maybe disjointed, but it doesn't matter, because the singing is some of the most glorious I have EVER heard. A shining feast of articulation, phrasings and harmonies, heavenly executed by Ms Ciofi and Ms Di Donato.

Just buy it for an unparalleled vocal chord experience; marvel at the singing. Any other considerations are entirely oblivious.

I must admit that, before becoming a dedicated Joyce DiDonato fan, I probably wouldn't have purchased a CD of Handel duets, or any Baroque duets for that matter. Like other reviewers have observed, the duets are performed out of dramatic context. I also prefer the full opera, particularly when it comes to Handel.

In the case of this CD, who cares? This is literally some of the loveliest Baroque ensemble singing I have ever heard. The pairing of Joyce DiDonato with Patrizia Ciofi was a stroke of brilliance. Their voices match perfectly. Their intonation is spot on, all the time. Their ornamentations, particularly the da capo ornamentations, are intelligently selected and brilliantly executed. The balance is just right between the singers and the chamber musicians.

I have a big thanks to give to Virgin Veritas and these two wonderful artists for this CD. It will get lots of play in my home.

Highly recommended.

This disc has been in particularly heavy rotation on my stereo, and the tunes go through my head all day. The two singers here are particularly well matched for a duo recital, and they thankfully shun the anemic, vibrato-less, gimmicky, straight-tone-heavy style that passes for "authentic" Baroque singing on far too many CDs recently. The instrumental ensemble is no less impressive. This is first-rate music-making.

I picked this disc up with the desire to hear Di Donato, and also because I love Handel. After giving it several listenings, I have to say that it is fantastic singing. Both Di Donato and Ciofi are virtuosic and stylish, both in their facility and choices of ornamentation, and sensitivity to the conventions of Baroque composition and texture, yet they do not restrict their voices to the vibratoless singing that many early music specialists seem to have adopted.

Also, the album represents a very exciting edition to the new wealth of Baroque music, particularly Handel, that has been emerging in the last 15 years. Each piece is well worth a listen, a number of them are truly stunning both musically and dramatically.

However, as the person who wrote the notes in the booklet said, audiences at the time didn't go to hear duets, and they often, especially under other composers, became conventional and boring. I think the same holds true in some sense with these. While they are anything but conventional and boring, I'm not sure any of them really compare to the arias of the Handel operas. While Di Donato and Ciofi offer a wonderful performance, and the ensemble that plays with them are equally stylish and musical, I felt the program as a whole seemed disjunct, with each individual piece being worth the listen, but the program as a whole didn't quite make sense, and was hard to listen from the first track all the way through.

Still, as that was about the only fault I could find with the album, that is a lot to say. It is still a valuable selection, many of them having few or no other recordings to represent the lasting genius of Handel.

First, I need to reveal my bias. I have been a Didonato fan since I first heard her at the Met auditions and a recital during her college days. Also, she grew up in Prairie Village KS (my present home town). While these factors initially led me to purchase this CD, it has become one of my favorites on its own merits. During Handel's times duets were not among his "greatest hits" because of the star system that existed at that time. In our day, when ensemble acting is valued at least as much as virtuoso performances, we can gain a new appreciation of these duets. I do not understand the comments about the inconsistent program. Handel's works as a whole have a sort of stylistic consistency. Both singers are outstanding. This is one of two or three CD's that I turn to when I am feeling stressed. A couple of years ago, it helped get me through a miserable night in the hospital (I had previously downloaded it to my MP-3 player). The music has the feel of an intimate recital rather than a spectacular performance.

I picked this disc up with the desire to hear Di Donato, and also because I love Handel. After giving it several listenings, I have to say that it is fantastic singing. Both Di Donato and Ciofi are virtuosic and stylish, both in their facility and choices of ornamentation, and sensitivity to the conventions of Baroque composition and texture, yet they do not restrict their voices to the vibratoless singing that many early music specialists seem to have adopted.

Also, the album represents a very exciting edition to the new wealth of Baroque music, particularly Handel, that has been emerging in the last 15 years. Each piece is well worth a listen, a number of them are truly stunning both musically and dramatically.

However, as the person who wrote the notes in the booklet said, audiences at the time didn't go to hear duets, and they often, especially under other composers, became conventional and boring. I think the same holds true in some sense with these. While they are anything but conventional and boring, I'm not sure any of them really compare to the arias of the Handel operas. While Di Donato and Ciofi offer a wonderful performance, and the ensemble that plays with them are equally stylish and musical, I felt the program as a whole seemed disjunct, with each individual piece being worth the listen, but the program as a whole didn't quite make sense, and was hard to listen from the first track all the way through.

Still, as that was about the only fault I could find with the album, that is a lot to say. It is still a valuable selection, many of them having few or no other recordings to represent the lasting genius of Handel.

I was fortunate to see and hear Renée Fleming and the astounding David Daniels sing "Io t'abbraccio" together in the magnificent Stephen Wadsworth production of Handel's "Rodelinda" at the Metropolitan Opera last week. There is nothing here that can match the ethereal quality and overwhelming melancholy of that duet performance, but sometimes this recording comes pretty close under the masterful baton of Alan Curtis. Soprano Patrizia Ciofi and mezzo-soprano Joyce Di Donato blend quite well together with Ciofi's often fiery coloratura floating easily over the verses and Di Donato's contrasting darker, fuller tone.

It's a nice idea to make a disc of just Handel duets but also a bit risky since they usually represent the major dramatic highpoints of his operas, mostly coming at the end of an act or of the entire opera. Given that fact, one would think there would be plenty of exhausting dramatic fireworks by providing one duet after another. In fact, the higher profile duets, such as the aforementioned "Io t'abbraccio" and the equally famous "Scherzano sul tup volto" from "Rinaldo", feel a bit lackluster probably because their gorgeous music crowns the end of scenes full of tension and drama. The joy in hearing two characters sing together, especially after hearing each of them express their individual sentiments, acts as a catharsis. But here the duets become lovely moments partially robbed of their dramatic impact because the organic synthesis of character and music is lost. Certainly it's not easy to deliver a recital containing only music that Handel devised for key dramatic moments. Yet, it more often does work here perhaps because there are a treasure trove of little-known gems such as "Caro, tu m'accendi" from "Faramondo", "Se mai turbo il tuo riposo" from "Poro" and "Alma mia, dolce ristoro" from "Admeto". The performances really become more like chamber music pieces, almost understated and always tasteful. Toward that end, the singing is expressive and stylish as Ciofi and Di Donato play lovers who quarrel and console in these duets. Together they bring this recording to a consistently high level regardless of the dramatic shortcomings, and their emotional availability makes their unified voices all the more resonant as they get lost in each other.

Patrizia Ciofi and Joyce DiDonato give a splendid performance of Handels Operatic Duets Amor e Gelosia. Their voices are beautifully suited to each other. The class and musicality of these two singers are sublime. I could not wish for a more in-depth and profoundly moving rendition of these duets.