Handel Alessandro Severo; Manzaro Don Crepuscolo
A pasticcio premiere adds a ‘new’ Handel opera to the canon
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel, Niccolò Manzaro
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Dabringhaus und Grimm
Magazine Review Date: 6/2011
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: MDG609 1674-2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Alessandro Severo |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Armonia Atenea Christophoros Stamboglis, Don Crepuscolo, Bass Gemma Bertagnolli, Claudio, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer George Petrou, Conductor Irini Karaianni, Albina, Mezzo soprano Kristina Hammarström, Giulia, Mezzo soprano Marita Solberg, Salustia, Soprano Mary-Ellen Nesi, Alessandro, Mezzo soprano Petros Magoulas, Marziano, Bass |
Don Crepuscolo |
Niccolò Manzaro, Composer
Armonia Atenea Claire Autenrieth, Overseer, Soprano Fritz Göllnitz, Young Servant, Tenor George Petrou, Conductor Gustav Neidlinger, Tutor, Bass Hedy Gura, Second Maidservant, Mezzo soprano Käthe Lange, Trainbearer, Soprano Lisa Bischof, Fourth Maidservant, Soprano Luciana Mancini, Falsirena Niccolò Manzaro, Composer |
Author: Richard Fairman
Following on from highly praised recordings of another pasticcio, Oreste, and four more popular works, MDG’s Handel opera series takes another confident step forwards. Conductor George Petrou gives us more vigorous Handel, played by his Greek colleagues in the period-instrument Armonia Atenea with red-blooded energy and pounding rhythms. Soprano Marita Solberg sings with disarming beauty as the ostensibly innocent Salustia and Kristina Hammarström brings fiery determination to her mezzo nemesis, the wicked mother-in-law Giulia. In the castrato role of Alessandro Severo, the impressionable young emperor, Mary-Ellen Nesi manages to set a tone distinct from the rest of a well-chosen cast, none of whom lets the side down. The drawbacks are minor – the continuo in the recitatives is rather hyperactive and some of the vocal cadenzas are questionable in style – and so there is no reason not to welcome this first Alessandro Severo to the Handel canon.
As a bonus, the third disc contains another first recording in Don Crepuscolo by the early-19th-century Greek composer Niccolo Manzaro. At 30 minutes, it is a sort of Rossini one-man comic opera for bass solo, here the jocular Christophoros Stamboglis – an odd makeweight for Handel but not unpleasing.
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