Detti Rabbinici

There are three absolutely amazing performances on this set, and not because the voices are more or less beautiful than usual: those of Victoria de los Angeles, Marilyn Horne, and Sesto Bruscantini. The first-named sings here with dramatic expression, cleanly executed coloratura runs, and trills, none of which she was known for through most of her career. By dramatic expression I do not mean the generalized drama of her Butterfly, but word-painting and attention to text, of getting inside the character. Her coloratura runs here are far more cleanly executed than on her famous recording of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. As for trills, yes, she attempted a couple of imperfect ones on her recordings, but none in her Jewel Song from Faust, neither the mono recording from 1952 nor the stereo remake of 1957, neither in Nedda’s 1953 “Ballatella” nor in Antonia’s music in the 1965 Contes d’Hoffman.

The real prize in this jam packed nine-CD set is of course the incandescent recording of Giulio Cesare with some of the most phenomenal singing on record by Larmore, Schlick, and Fink. When this came out it created quite a stir, given it is about as complete as it ever has been, and filled with Jacob’s searching and trend-setting conducting. While it won’t displace favorites of yesteryear, those recordings are of a different era and style altogether, and here the opera comes together in a manner fully redolent of what Handel must have envisioned.

La diavolessa dates some way into the Galuppi/Goldoni canon, being the 13th of their joint ventures. It was first given during November 1755 at Teatro San Samuele in Venice, and like many of Galuppi’s operas soon traveled beyond the confines of Italy, being taken up in Leipzig and Prague in the year following its Venetian premiere. The motivational force of the plot is greed, but Goldoni also has some pertinent observations on social status to make. The action centers round the Naples home of Don Poppone, a wealthy fool obsessed by the belief that there is hidden treasure in his cellar.

Galuppi's score is tuneful and amusing, if not profound – and the libretto by Goldini is really just a farce. It is given a spendid performance by relatively unknown forces, who are all amazingly good – enough to make me look up whatever else they may have recorded. This is a studio (actually a church) recording, rather than a live performance, and is in a much clearer rendition than is common to this sort of music. All together, an excellent set, which promises to give great pleasure over long periods of time.

“This is unquestionably the most vital and authentic account of Idomeneo to date on disc. We have here what was given at the work's first performance in Munich plus, in appendices, what Mozart wanted, or was forced, to cut before that premiere and the alternative versions of certain passages, so that various combinations of the piece can be programmed by the listener. Gardiner's direct, dramatic conducting catches ideally the agony of Idomeneo's terrible predicament – forced to sacrifice his son because of an unwise row. This torment of the soul is also entirely conveyed by Anthony Rolfe Johnson in the title role to which Anne Sofie von Otter's moving Idamante is an apt foil. Sylvia McNair is a diaphanous, pure-voiced Ilia, Hillevi Martinpelto a properly fiery, sharp-edged Elettra.

Fabio Biondi returns with the first recording of 'Carlo, Re d'Alemagna' by Alessandro Scarlatti, first performed in Naples in January 1716. The opera was resurrected in 2003 by Biondi (the leader of the innovative ensemble Europa Galante) who led a concert performance with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. This studio recording was made in late 2009. It is in many ways a typical example of Neapolitan Baroque opera with action assigned to the recitatives whilst the characters are developed during the arias. The opera deals with the accession to power and its exercise: an ever present problem in many ways and about the legitimacy of Carlo, successor to the late king. A mixture of opera seria and opera buffo, a requirement for the contemporary Neapolitan public c1690, is also found here.