Bad Guys

Marshal Flagg, an aging lawman about to be retired, hears that his old nemesis, the outlaw McKaye, is back in the area and planning a robbery. Riding out to hunt down McKaye, Flagg is captured by McKaye's gang and finds out that McKaye is no longer the leader of the gang, but is considered just an aging relic by the new leader, a youngster named Waco. Waco orders Mackaye to shoot Flagg, and when Mackaye refuses Waco abandons both of them. Flagg then takes Mackaye back to town only to find out that he has been "retired", and when he sees how clueless and incompetent the new marshal and the city fathers are, he persuades Mackaye that it is up to the two of them to stop Waco and his gang from ravaging the town.

Marshal Flagg, an aging lawman about to be retired, hears that his old nemesis, the outlaw McKaye, is back in the area and planning a robbery. Riding out to hunt down McKaye, Flagg is captured by McKaye's gang and finds out that McKaye is no longer the leader of the gang, but is considered just an aging relic by the new leader, a youngster named Waco. Waco orders Mackaye to shoot Flagg, and when Mackaye refuses Waco abandons both of them. Flagg then takes Mackaye back to town only to find out that he has been "retired", and when he sees how clueless and incompetent the new marshal and the city fathers are, he persuades Mackaye that it is up to the two of them to stop Waco and his gang from ravaging the town.

The castrato in Italian opera of the early 18th century had vocal power that was often associated with heroic roles, but Handel wrote several memorable villains for the voice type as well. Indeed, using the castrato's star quality to add depth to his bad guys was one facet of his operatic genius, and the idea of collecting a group of these arias is good enough to recommend this album even apart from the vocal gifts of Spanish countertenor Xavier Sabata. And those gifts are considerable. Sabata is a true operatic countertenor, somewhat in the vein of Philippe Jaroussky (to whose album of Vivaldi heroic arias this release makes a fine companion).