William Mai

One can easily appreciate this early William Christie recording with Capella Coloniensis, a group originally formed in 1954 (!) to perform baroque works in historically informed performances. Christie masters this orchestra well, and the playing is impeccable. The casting is excellent, including some of the great singers of the time: Emma Kirkby, in her prime, Agnes Mellon, Dominique Visse and David Cordier, among others. There is even a male soprano, Randall K. Wong, a rare type of singer indeed.

Recorded back in 1986, and reissued several times in different forms, including a new reissue, Hasse’s Cleofide is a very odd bird. At nearly four hours, this opera features only high voices: sopranos and counter-tenors. This gives a strange tone to the work; one is used to hearing a variety of voices in Handel’s operas, which are contemporary with Cleofide. But in Cleofide it seems as though something is missing.
Kirk McElhearn

Based on concerts presented in Spain and France countertenors Philippe Jaroussky and Max Emanuel Cencic have joined with William Christie and the Les Arts Florissants to produce this CD of duets written for countertenors.

EMI can boast a great number of excellent recordings of Don Giovanni. Back in the 1930s Fritz Busch made the first complete recording with his Glyndebourne forces. After that it took more than twenty years before a new version appeared, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini and with Eberhard Wächter, Giuseppe Taddei, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Joan Sutherland among the soloists. This set, at present available in the GROC series, is regarded by many as the definitive recording. Klemperer recorded it in the mid-1960s with Nicolai Ghiaurov in the title role and a decade later Barenboim set it down with Roger Soyer as Don Giovanni and Geraint Evans as Leporello. In the 1980s EMI returned to Glyndebourne and took down Bernard Haitink’s view of this eternally fascinating masterpiece – Thomas Allen and Richard Van Allan were the Don and his servant…
– Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

Serse opens with one of Handel’s most celebrated arias, the Persian King Xerxes’ ode to a plane tree. It provides a serene prelude to an enthralling opera, propelled by power games and amorous intrigue and filled with dazzling vocal virtuosity. Anne Sofie von Otter in the title role leads a superbly balanced cast under the direction of William Christie, a master of baroque style. “Christie masterminds an entertaining performance … This recording captures a theatrical flow and affectionate atmosphere that is deeply satisfying.”

This album of Baroque cantatas and chamber duets grew out of a 2007 performance of Stefano Landi's 1631 opera Il Sant'Alessio starring Philippe Jaroussky and Max Emanuel Cencic (among the eight countertenors in the cast) with William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissants. Christie was so impressed with the blend of Jaroussky and Cencic's voices that he brought them together to explore the vast and rarely performed repertoire of late 17th and early 18th century Italian duets for equal voices.

Armonico Consort return to album on Signum with a collection of Handel arias, performed by leading counter-tenor William Towers. A noted soloist in both opera and oratorio, the programme is taken from roles which Towers has sung across his career in various productions across the globe. Towers writes: “It is the life-affirming, live-giving aspect of Handel that I’m aiming to celebrate. So frequently his operas reveal their most devastatingly beautiful and uplifting music when life is at its darkest. Here the arias shine brightest, here we find Radamisto’s ‘Ombra cara’ and the boundlessly optimistic ‘Dopo l’orrore’, looking out beyond the darkest clouds to the faint glimmer of a dawning hope. This is the uncrushable, indomitable spirit that lies in all of us … We just need to take the time to listen.”