Handel Opera Arias and Overtures

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Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel

Label: Hyperion

Magazine Review Date: 8/1996

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 76

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: CDA66860

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Almira	George Frideric Handel, Composer George Frideric Handel, Composer
Rodrigo, Movement: Perche viva il caro sposo	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort Emma Kirkby, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor
Rinaldo, Movement: ~	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort Emma Kirkby, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor
Silla, Movement: Overture	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor
Amadigi di Gaula, Movement: ~	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort Emma Kirkby, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor
Giulio Cesare, 'Julius Caesar', Movement: V'adoro, pupille	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort Emma Kirkby, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor
Tamerlano, Movement: Overture	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort Emma Kirkby, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor
Tamerlano, Movement: Cor di padre	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort Emma Kirkby, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor
Rodelinda, Movement: Ombre, piante	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort Emma Kirkby, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor
Scipione, Movement: Overture	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort Emma Kirkby, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor
Scipione, Movement: ~	George Frideric Handel, Composer (The) Brandenburg Consort Emma Kirkby, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Roy Goodman, Conductor

Author: Stanley Sadie

Some of the music in this operatic selection is unfamiliar. The ‘second overture’ in Almira, for example, is not in the standard edition and has never been recorded before; another curiosity is the overture to Silla, a very spirited French overture followed by a movement that foreshadows a familiar one in the Op. 3 Concerti grossi. Thereafter the music is taken from well-known (and previously recorded) operas, but Emma Kirkby’s delightful singing makes it seem refreshingly new. She is at her very best in the strongly emotional pieces: “Ah! spietato” from Amadigi is particularly movingly done, and in sharp contrast comes the brilliant and furious aria “Destero dall’ empia Dite” from the same opera, with trumpet obbligato and prominent oboe too (Robert Farley and Katharina Arfken, both splendid). Some may prefer a more obviously sensuous voice in “V’adoro, pupille” from Giulio Cesare, but it is certainly beautifully sung. Perhaps best of all are the arias from Tamerlano and Rodelinda where the full expressive force of the music is so tellingly realized, and the ornamentation in the da capo sections only heightens the expression. “Ombre, piante” in particular, where Rodelinda mourns her supposedly dead husband, is a performance to treasure – and it is enhanced by the pathos of Rachel Brown’s flute.
The orchestral playing in general is rather patchy, with some curious brusqueness and rhythms that are apt to be clumsy and sometimes oddly indecisive; the excessively resonant acoustic does not help. A further disc with the later operas (this one only goes up to 1726) is promised and I hope that the orchestra will move out of the swimming bath before then. Still, this is a minor flaw in a disc which contains many fine things.'