Fernando is the abandoned first draft of Handel’s opera Sosarme (performed at the King’s Theatre in February 1732)… Curtis’s pacing and shaping of Handel’s music is consistently subtle, astutely rhetorical and firmly connected to the libretto text. Although it might be possible to explore firmer muscularity and create a more vivid sense of surprise in the quicker music, there is something to be said for Curtis’s shrewd reservation of such effects for when it is truly vital for the drama. For instance, Marianna Pizzolato’s powerful arias “Vado al campo” and “Cuor di madre e cuor di moglie” are potently delivered moments of severe agitated passion that are all the more effective for the sweeter elegance that pervades much of this lovely score.
Founded in Italy in 1992 by Alan Curtis, one of the most acclaimed specialists in the interpretation of pre-romantic music, Il Complesso Barocco, has become a renowned international baroque orchestra with a focus on Italian Baroque opera and oratorio. Their high standard for interpretation, intonation and stylistic accuracy has led to their being requested in the most important concert venues and festivals in Europe.
Written in 1740, Deidamia was the last of Handel’s Italian operas; thereafter he relinquished the form and turned his creative energies to English oratorio. The libretto is based on the myth of Achilles’ boyhood: disguised as a girl on the island of Scyros to escape his fate at Troy, Achilles is unmasked by Ulysses and joins the war, abandoning his lover Deidamia. Despite its heroic subject Deidamia is written with a light, almost comic touch, Deidamia herself providing a central seriousness as she moves from the ecstasies of young love to a tragic maturity, forced to release the boy she loves to his inevitable death. Simone Kermes is Deidamia and Anna Bonitatibus her cynical adversary Ulysses; Alan Curtis’ new recording reveals the many beauties of a very human and appealing work that marks a wistful end to the golden age of Baroque opera.
First performed in 1729 and quickly forgotten, Lotario is a worthy work with plenty of effective arias and a duet, with characters and intrigues that demand attention. Conductor Alan Curtis explains in the liner notes that he has cut the recitatives and an aria or two in order to get the work onto two CDs. I can’t argue with his decision, and it’s good to have such a fine performance of this unknown work available. Curtis breathes life into each aria and paces the recitatives wisely. He takes time over the warm, loving arias and doesn’t give in to the temptation to rip into the allegros.
Equally known for his live performances and musicological work in establishing new performing practices for early opera, Alan Curtis enjoyed a fruitful career. A scholar, as well as a conductor and harpsichordist, Curtis edited several important works with an appreciation for authenticity, effective performance, and – in the case of opera – stage-worthiness. Several of his best recordings were issued in the 1990s and in the new millennium. Curtis studied first at Michigan State University and attained his bachelor's degree there in 1955.
In 1733 the Opera of the Nobility was set up in London in opposition to Handel's own opera company. Handel lost all of his star singers except for the soprano Anna Strada del Po - she was rewarded with two of Handel's finest roles, Alcina and Ginevra (Ariodante)). Handel engaged the castrato Carestini as leading man. He had a range of two octaves and an ability to sing elaborate coloratura. He only sang for Handel from 1733 to 1735 but Handel wrote the roles of Ariodante and Ruggiero (Alcina) for him. These are roles which exploited Carestini's virtuosity in instrument-like vocal writing.
Handel's Giove in Argo (Jupiter in Argos) is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, a pastiche (or, in the parlance of the time, pasticcio) of numbers from earlier operas stitched together into a mythological-pastoral plot that is absurd even by the standards of Baroque opera. It is a notable sign of the success of the Baroque opera revival that this has appeared on a semi-major label, Virgin Classics. The pieces were all from operas that were fairly recent at the time, and it's possible that the work was intended as a kind of greatest-hits reprise, but London audiences did not bite; the opera was long thought to be lost, and it had its modern premiere only in 2006, with newly written recitatives.
One of the very last recordings of baroque-pioneer conductor Alan Curtis (1934-2015), a supreme Handelian conductor and scholar. Alan Curtis, described by the New York Times’ as “one of the great scholar-musicians of recent times”, conducts a brilliant cast including German soprano star Christiane Karg and the Italian mezzo soprano Romina Basso. Christiane Karg is one of those fascinating voices of our time. She is certainly one of today’s most interesting German singers with an international profile. Many of her recordings such as “Scene!”, “Heimliche Aufforderung” or “Portrait” (for Berlin Classics) have been internationally acclaimed and were big commecial successes. A selection of arias, duets and instrumental pieces from Handel masterworks such as Semele, Hercules, Partenope, a.o. With liner notes by the british Handel specialist Dr. David Vickers. Incl. a dedication by mystery writer DONNA LEON, who was a close friend to Alan Curtis.
This much-awaited recording, where Canadian singers Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Karina Gauvin perform some of the most beautiful arias composed by Handel showcases outstanding and conniving talent. This project was born from a collaboration with Alan Curtis and his Complesso Barocco, one of the most famous and renowned ensembles in the baroque music field. The 15 arias, performed in solo or in duet, are jewels from 9 oratorios that use material from the Bible and provide a large overview of Handel's genius to depict each emotion, from tenderness to fury.
Most of the Handel pieces on this release are "hidden" in that if you go to the editions of the operas from which they are taken, you won't find them. Many of them were "insertion arias," written for revivals of Handel operas where the new singers wanted something tailor made. Two were written for insertion into the opera of someone else, namely Alessandro Scarlatti, and there are several miscellaneous rarities and rather odd instrumental pieces for interludes. It might sound like an excursion into the dustier corners of the Handel repertory on the part of the historical-instrument group Il Complesso Barocco and their conductor Alan Curtis, who has been at this kind of thing since most of the current crop of Baroque opera conductors were toddlers and who presumably has earned the right to do what he wants.