Customer Reviews

Ruth Ann Swenson: Endless Pleasure: Handel & Mozart Arias

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I own every recording that Swenson has ever done. (which isn't any kind of unusual feat, she is terribly under-recorded) This one shows off her ease with the challenges of Handel and Mozart. "Myself I Shall Adore" is sung with an amusing sense of playful vanity--not to mention the accuracy and sheer beauty of her fioratura and trills. Swenson moves her voice with quicksilver speed. Every note is articulated. I love the intimate way she caresses Handel's intoxicatingly lovely, "V'adoro pupille." Caesar would have been utterly charmed. My favorite item on the disc is her "Parto m'affretto." It's filled with a true heroine's pathos and seamless coloratura. Her staccatti are spectacular. A very passionate and gorgeous performance that will bring you endless pleasure.

The reviewer from San Francisco is wildly inaccurate. Swenson sings VERY passionately, conveying the text. Endless Pleasure is NOT from Giulio Cesare, it is from the opera Semele, so the characterzation is differnt. The real pleasure here though, are the Handel selections, sung with such technical prowess, she will take your breath away, especially in "Myself I Shall Adore". This is Baroque opera sung at its finest and is a good introduction to the genre. The whole mood of the album is sunny and fresh and is the perfect CD for a Sunday afternoon.

Rut Ann Swenson es dueña de una preciosa voz y excelente musicalidad. Nos entrega aquí una selección de obras de Haendel y Mozart, compositores de un especialísimo don para las melodías y expertos conocedores de las posibilidades técnicas de la voz para su época. Muy hermosa la versión de "Da tempeste il legno infrato" de la ópera Giulio Cesare de Haendel donde su voz se torna ligera y muy fresca.
Preciosa tambien la interpretación del aria "Martern aller Arten" de "El Rapto del Serrallo" de Mozart.
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment dirigidos por Sir Charles Mackerras simplemente exquisita.

Ruth Ann Swenson is a highly accomplished and enjoyable singer, but not an all-purpose one. Her rich, full tone, accurate coloratura, easy high notes and beautiful trill work wonderfully in "Rigoletto" and in "La Sonnambula," for example; she seems dramatically committed and engaged in those roles, too. Here, she seems detached, clueless and stylistically at sea -- neither her tone nor her phrasing conveys the luscious sensuousness of Semele's arias, and her Mozart is similarly bland and uncomprehending. It's surprising that Charles Mackerras, usually a superb and enlivening conductor of both these composers' music, could not stimulate or lead her to something better.

Her voice is just breathtakingly gorgeous.Her voice is of such a smoothness, purity, and delicasy.I loved her renditions of semele and they are the best I've heard. She beat out Fleming on this one. Fleming having released a new album with some of the same Handel arias.Her voice is just a jewel.This deep soprano is one of my new favorites-beautiful voice. I wonder why I haven't heard more about her having such national critical aclaim and awards.

Ruth Ann Swenson is probably the premier American coloratura currently on the opera stage. (Now that Kathy Battle is washed up, there's little competition). She is an amazingly adept singer with the most limpid, acrobatic voice. Living in San Francisco, I've had the chance to watch her career since she was a student here, and am a big fan. Which is why I find this album disappointing. There is a whole spate of singers today specializing in baroque and classical music, and who do it supremely well. Because of this we've had the luxury of raising our expectations. In this recording, Ruth Ann Swenson sings as perfectly as you would expect, but opera seria is all about passion expressed vocally. Passion is precisely what this recording lacks. In "Marten Aller Arten," for example, Constanze is telling the pasha that no matter how much he may torture her, she won't submit to him. In this version it sound like a chamber piece, where all of the vocalization is polite, genteel and almost flirty. The title track, "Endless Pleasures," from Handel's "Julius Caesar" is Cleopatra singing of the pleasure she will enjoy as Caesar's lover. She could almost be a housewife singing of the joy some detergent give her. In short, if you are a fan of Ruth Ann Swenson and of coloratura singing, but you don't know or care much about the genre, you will enjoy it. If you are someone who cares about the composers and have certain ideas about the treatment they receive (stylistically, not technically, which once again, is perfect), then you may be as disappointed with it as I was.

The title of this review says it all. Ruth Ann Swenson is such a dull singer. Her singing is very weary and uninvolved in the "Giulio Cesare" arias and in "Martern aller Arten". None of Cleopatra's emotions is conveyed by her singing. Konstanze's defiance and dignity are noticeably absent from her rendition. If you want to hear a great rendition of this Mozart aria, check out Joan Sutherland's version on her "The Art of the Prima Donna" recording. Sutherland's voice sails through that aria with so much ease that it is breathtaking. Sutherland also has more temperament. Cleopatra's seduction aria and lament aria are so underembellished that it is criminal. Swenson has a wonderful trill and she should have been able to show it off in those two arias. I suspect that Charles Mackerras had something to do with her restraint in embellishing those arias. Cleopatra's bravura aria is done well, but the embellishments are strange. The coloratura is assured, but it sounds too careful and deliberate. Only once does a trill surface. What a shame! Beverly Sills has much better renditions of Cleopatra's arias. The "Semele" arias are done well and the coloratura seems more carefree. She really seems to identify with the character of Semele.

The album, on the whole, causes one's mind to wander very often. Charles Mackerras is competent, but his tempos are way too slow. His orchestra plays well, but it sounds weak and anemic. This whole album is a shame. Swenson needs to develop dramatic involvement and she needs to execute coloratura with abandon. Her diction is great. It would be a great shame to waste such promising talent.

I am a big fan of Ruth Ann and this CD is wonderful. Her interpretations of these arias are executed well. The arias from Semele are refreshing. However, a better Semele can be found in Kathleen Battle. Her Mozart's are my favorites on this album. The last aria, "Parto, m'afretto", is sung beautifully with some amazing fireworks. Brava Ruth Ann!