Handel - Alcina / Fleming · Graham · Dessay · Les Arts Florissants · Christie [Highlights]

Handel - Alcina / Fleming · Graham · Dessay · Les Arts Florissants · Christie [Highlights]

Handel - Alcina / Fleming · Graham · Dessay · Les Arts Florissants · Christie [Highlights]
List Price: $16.99
Our Price: $2.58
You Save: $14.41 (85%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album


(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Edition: Music CD
Format: Live
CD Release Date: 2001-10-16
Music Label: Erato
Soundtracks:
  1. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Sinfonia
  2. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Ã? gelosia
  3. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Sì, son quella!
  4. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Tornami a vagheggiar
  5. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Ama, sospira
  6. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Ah! mio cor!
  7. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Verdi prati
  8. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Ombre pallide
  9. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Sinfonia
  10. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Sta nell'Ircana
  11. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Mi restano le lagrime
  12. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Non è amor, nè gelosia
  13. Alcina, opera, HWV 34: Dall'orror di notte cieca

Music reviews of Handel - Alcina / Fleming · Graham · Dessay · Les Arts Florissants · Christie [Highlights]

Music Review: Powerful Females Inhabit Splendid Handel Recording
Rating: 5 Stars

Four magnificent singers are put on starry-eyed display in this energetic recording of a live performance of the 1999 Paris Opéra production of Handel's "Alcina". Each delivers their individual stamp in some of Handel's most powerful and beautiful arias. The irony is that the basis upon which these emotions pour forth in such majestic torrents is actually a fanciful tale about a sorceress, Alcina, who lures men to her island only to turn them into animals when they fall in love with her. Needless to say, things get complicated when Alcina truly does fall in love with Ruggiero, who already has a fiancée, Bradamante, who disguises herself as his brother but not before Alcina's sister, Morgana, also falls in love with Ruggiero. Even though it sounds like a convoluted Shakespearean comedy, Handel took this plot quite seriously and filled his work with sonorous set pieces that tear down the characters' vulnerability in often ravishing fashion.

In her first foray into Handel, superstar soprano Renée Fleming cuts a very passionate, sometimes imperious figure in the title role. Her high point is Alcina's intense Act II aria, "Ah! Mio cor", where upon being abandoned by Ruggiero, she lets out an aria of heartbreaking poignancy but then gives way to her regal bearing and plots her regal act of vengeance. Having just seen Fleming in the Stephen Wadsworth production of Handel's "Rodelinda" at the Metropolitan Opera last week, I was impressed at how she harnessed her famous trilling to fit the contours of her put-upon character. With Alcina, Fleming embodies a character more to her passionate singing style, her coloratura resplendent without undue ornamentation. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham does a "pants" role as Ruggiero and plays the lover with conviction. She sings her Act III aria, "Sta nell'Ircana", with a romantic openness befitting the bewildered character. Soprano Natalie Dessay handles the soubrettish role of Morgana with fiery virtuosity, certainly on full display in her Act I aria, "Tornami a vagheggiar". Contralto Kathleen Kuhlmann carries the vocal heft and executes the diction required to be persuasive as the disguised fiancée, a smaller role but given a nice showcase with the Act I aria, "È gelosia". The inevitable capper is the climactic trio performance of Fleming, Graham and Kuhlmann on "Non è amor, nè gelosia", as powerful a melding of supreme voices as you are likely to hear on an opera recording. Much of the credit is due to the estimable William Christie conducting the expert playing of Les Arts Florissants. This is a splendid recording with a minimum of stage and background noise. Strongly recommended.
More Handel - Alcina / Fleming · Graham · Dessay · Les Arts Florissants · Christie [Highlights] free music reviews:
1

Classical CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Classical CDs
Winterscapes ImageWinterscapes
by London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebee ImageThe Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebee
by Dini Petty
Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops: $13.98
Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr ImageClassical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr
Release date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $24.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos)) ImageTchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))
by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] ImageJose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]
Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops: $9.99
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] ImageTchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.89
Price in other shops: $29.95
Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] ImageRambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops: $29.95
Winter Music: Composing the North ImageWinter Music: Composing the North
by John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.93
Price in other shops: $25.95
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] ImagePuccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.38
Price in other shops: $29.95
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] ImageVerdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: $29.95
Books | DVD Video | VHS Video | Health and Personal Care | Digital Cameras and Photo | Kitchen and Housewares | Tools and Hardware | Sports Equipment | Dresses shirts shoes apparel pants
Copyright © 2004-2007 music-hills.com
Google
 
Web music-hills.com
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles