Queens Rival

The title is irresistible, and the compilation is clever. This disc includes duets and arias from the five operas - Alessandro, Admeto, RiccardoPrimo, Siroe and Tolomeo - that Handel wrote for the last three seasons of his opera company, the Royal Academy of Music, from 1726 until 1729. It was a time when those real-life rival queens (they were known by that label), the sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, trod the boards in the King's Theatre, Haymarket. It is by no means all jealous fury either. As one would expect of a composer of such subtle insight into character, there are other carefully nuanced emotions in this music.