Sandrine Piau - Handel Opera Seria
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CD Details
Composer: George Frideric HandelConductor: Christophe Rousset
Orchestra: Les Talens Lyriques
Performer: Sandrine Piau
Performer: Patrick Beaugiraud
Performer: Atsushi Sakai
Performer: Michel Quagliozzi
Performer: Claire Michon
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-01-18
Music Label: Naïve
Soundtracks:
- Scipione (Publio Cornelio Scipione), opera, HWV 20: Act 2. Scene 8. Scoglio d'immota fronte
- Orlando, opera, HWV 31: Act 2. Scene 8. Verdi piante, erbette liete
- Giulio Cesare in Egitto, opera, HWV 17: Act 2. Scene 8. Recitativo. Che sento? oh Dio!
- Partenope, opera, HWV 27: Act 1. Scene 3. L'amor ed il destin
- Amadigi di Gaula, opera, HWV 11: Act 1. Scene 4. Ah spietato
- Alessandro, opera, HWV 21: Act 3. Scene 3. Brilla nell' alma un non inteso ancor
- Rodelinda, regina de' Langobardi, opera, HWV 19: Act 1. Scene 7. Ombre piante, urne funeste
- Faramondo, opera, HWV 39: Act 2. Scene 8. Combattuta da due venti
- Tamerlano, opera, HWV 18: Act 3. Scene 1. Cor di padre
- Deidamia, opera, HWV 42: Act 3. Scene 2. M'ai resa infelice
- Arianna in Creta, opera, HWV 32: Act 2. Scene 12. Son qual stanco pellegrino
Music reviews of Sandrine Piau - Handel Opera Seria
Music Review: Seriously incredible Handel
Rating: 5 Stars
If you don't like Handel recitals that come with a lot of hype, be warned that this album comes with a heavy load of uniform critical praise, plus raves and adoration of music aficionados. It may not be selling as well as it should, as there is a law in the music business that declares "Handel album without Ombra Mai Fu shall be treated with utmost suspicion" but just look at the reviews here. In the press, this CD has been called astonishing, amazing, peerless, superb, blah blah blah and also the "best Handel aria recording ever made by a soprano." Hyperbole aside, does it live up to the hype? It doesn't just live up to it, it walks all over it. I have had this album for months, but every time I try to write something about it, I end up listening to it over and over again, instead of writing about it.
Piau's voice is light, perfectly focused, like a bright laser beam, absolutely even from top to bottom and with incredible high notes. Her technique is perfect, same for breath control. Her speed and impossibly precise runs defy laws of nature. But of course just that would not be enough for stellar Handel performance of this calibre; she is also a gifted actress who is able to show dramatic colours in every single aria. There is not a single track here which is not a fascinating study of the character, and her interpretations are varied and very memorable: Berenice, fiery, defiant, Cleopatra in her mournful lament... To fully credit Piau's interpretive gifts, I would have to list every aria on this CD. And she chooses such great pieces, many seldom heard at all, all arranged in an imaginative, stimulating programme.
I usually have a bone to pick with Baroque ornamentations from the current singers, having been brought up on a steady diet of Emma Kirkby, Julianne Baird and Lorraine Hunt, who not only improvise their ornamentations, but do it so brilliantly. Sandrine Piau joins this illustrious club of the Ornamentators Par Excellence; her ornamentations are written in (largely by Rousset) but they are just glorious.
The Les Talens Lyriques orchestra under Christophe Rousset, Piau's frequent collaborator in live performances, plays great, though if I had one tiny complaint about this album, it would be that laws of physic do mar their performance a little bit: Piau's voice can move faster than these period instruments, and she sometimes whizzes by the orchestra very slightly ahead of them, in the fast arias. This is actually most evident in the fireworks of the opening aria, Scoglio d'immota, but that's only because she takes it at such superhuman speed, they have to play for their life just to stay with her.
Last but not least, I actually like the cover of this album, I think Piau looks cool, like a porcelain doll. Not that this album would be any less awe inspiring if it came wrapped in brown sandwich paper. This is some seriously amazing Opera Seria and if you love Handel's music, this album is an absolute must-have.
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