Geolier Dio LO SA Atto II

I quatro rusteghi (The Four Curmudgeons, The Four Ruffians, in Edward J. Dent's translation School for Fathers) is a comic opera in three acts, music by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to a text by Luigi Sugana and Giuseppe Pizzolato based on Carlo Goldoni's 18th-century play I rusteghi. The opera is written in Venetian dialect, hence "quatro" instead of "quattro".

There is only one studio recording available of Donizetti's La Favorita (Italian version, not the original French language La Favorite) This is a bravura role for Luciano Pavarotti who's voice is certainly at its best here singing the role of Fernando, repertoire that could have been written just for him. The high C's and C#'s are exquisite here. He truly seems to know what he is singing about for this recording and his performance comes accross as very believable because of it. Fiorenza Cossotto is especially moving in her role as the "the favorite," Leonora. I found it unfortunate that she was not in better voice for the first act of this recording. Very disturbing was the love duet with Pavarotti.

For me, this recording represents the absolute epitome of bel canto singing, with Pavarotti spinning endless golden tone as Fernand and Fiorenza Cossotto showcasing that indomitable chest-voice as Leonora.

The impressive discography of Handel operas and oratorios from Nicholas McGegan continues with this recording of Radamisto, made following staged performances of the opera at the 1993 Göttingen Handel Festival. Generally speaking, McGegan has derived better results in those sets using the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (as here) than in those made with his Californian forces. The German players sustain his brisk tempi with relative ease, though McGegan’s penchant for spiky staccato and short, snatched phrases rather than long lines does not always do the music full justice. The stars are the countertenor Ralf Popken in the title role and Juliana Gondek as his long-suffering wife, Zenobia.

Natalie Dessay is one of great delights of the opera world today and her recordings have all been excellent. This however ,in my opinion , is her best disc to date. Her voice is so suited to the music. My only hope is that if a production of Giulio Cesare comes to Royal Opera House they cast Natalie Dessay . The conductor (Emmanuelle Haïm) and Orchestra (Le Concert d'Astrée) bring the music alive. This disc is 65 minutes of sheer joy.

I do think that this Decca set is arguably the best compilation reissue of such a bulk of Handel work which has been released in a long time, just in time to commemorate the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the passing of il caro Sassone. There is a lot in this box, absence of libretti notwithstanding. The enclosed booklet is essential to navigate you through the track listings and timings and little else but a small general essay on GFH.

By John Van Note

Countertenor Tim Mead leads an all-star cast in the Early Opera Company’s recording of Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula, conducted by Christian Curnyn. The opera was first performed in London in 1715, in the first season under the reign of George I, in the King’s Theatre on the Haymarket. The complex, twisting plot features lovers Amadigi and Orianna, imprisoned by the sorceress Melissa (who wants Amadigi’s love). Amadigi’s ally Dardano turns against his friend when he realises his love for Orianna (with whom Dardano is in love) and sides with Melissa. Her plans are repeatedly foiled, and true love triumphs at the final curtain! Amadigi is considerd the finest of his early London operas in terms of musical sophistication, theatrical pacing, and a perfectly balanced exploration of the interconnected relationships, motivations, and emotional divergences among just four dissimilar yet equally arresting characters.

Amadigi di Gaula had its premiere in London in 1715. Its libretto, based on a medieval legend and encompassing such effects as a magically appearing sorceress, reflects the then-fashionable English taste for spectacle in operatic production. Musically, however, the opera is of chamber dimensions, involving just five soloists, and takes in some emotionally intimate moments. In this backward-looking piece – it even ends with a brief ballet – Handel doesn't attempt any structural innovations: the arias and duets are cast firmly in the tripartite da capo format. Still, he finds room for the occasional imaginative touch, as when he uses French-overture gestures in a few of the ritornelli to suggest tragic breadth, or has the two voices in a hitherto contrapuntal duet launch the "B" section in straight thirds.

The Italian opera of the 17th century is a part of music history which is still hardly explored. Of course, Claudio Monteverdi's operas are regularly performed and recorded, and some of the stage works by his pupil Francesco Cavalli, the main composer of operas in Venice after Monteverdi's death has been given attention to, but many other works written in Italy in the 17th century are still to be rediscovered. One of the composers of that time whose works are hardly explored is Pietro Antonio Cesti. From the tracklist one may conclude that he was a prolific composer of operas. René Jacobs has been an avid advocate of Cesti's oeuvre, and in 1982 he made a recording of L'Orontea, arias from which he also performed at the concert in 1980 recorded and only recently released by ORF. He also gave performances of L'Argia, but so far that hasn't been recorded on disc.

Amadigi di Gaula (HWV 11) is a "magic" opera in three acts, with music by George Frideric Handel. It was the fifth Italian opera that Handel wrote for London and was composed during his stay at Burlington House in 1715. It is based on Amadis de Grèce, a French tragédie-lyrique by André Cardinal Destouches and Antoine Houdar de la Motte. Charles Burney maintained near the end of the eighteenth century, Amadigi contained "…more invention, variety and good composition, than in any one of the musical dramas of Handel which I have yet carefully and critically examined.” The opera received its first performance in London at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket on 25 May 1715. Handel made prominent use of wind instruments, so the score is unusually colorful, and at points resembles the Water Music, which he composed only a few years later.