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Fanfare Magazine: 43:5 (05-06/2020) 
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Inventa Records
INV100


Handel Uncaged: Cantatas for Alto Product Image

Code-barres / Barcode : 5060262791615

 
Reviewer: Raymond Tuttle
 

This disc goes by the catchy title Handel Uncaged, and the cover photograph depicts countertenor Lawrence Zazzo standing behind an old-fashioned bird cage, its doors open, and its former occupant having literally “flown the coop,” save for a red feather. The reason for this, Zazzo writes in his booklet note, is that he wanted to “re-contextualize” Handel’s cantatas for modern performance, “inviting performers to be more flexible in their presentation.” Also, in a sense, during his Italian years, Handel was what one might call “a bird in a gilded cage,” writing to satisfy the expectations of his several patrons, and perhaps also involved in romantic entanglements. Finally, Amore uccellatore (Cupid the Birdcatcher), which accounts for about half the length of this CD, has not been recorded previously, and so it makes sense to give it additional visibility. Udite il mio consiglio also is claimed as a world premiere recording, albeit it in its more concise “Rome version” for the Marquis Ruspoli, which Zazzo finds musically and dramatically preferable.
 

As an example of the “re-contextualization” that Zazzo refers to, a brief improvisation for harpsichord has been inserted between two of the cantatas, and within Amore uccellatore, three brief instrumental “scene changes” have been added from other works by Handel. I have no problem with this, but some might consider it taking liberties, especially when instrumentations have been changed, as is the case in the Suite in F.
 

Zazzo, who already has made an excellent impression in several complete recordings of operas by Handel, is in his element here. His voice is not as intrinsically sensuous as Jaroussky’s or Orliński’s, for example, but he knows how to put it to the service of Handel’s music. He is sensitive to the varying moods and opportunities for expression in these cantatas, and he always does so in good taste, never exaggerating or “camping it up”—which Amore uccellatore gives a singer ample excuses to do. If anything, he is a little too even-tempered; the dramatic and temperamental differences amongst these four cantatas could have been brought out more. For example, in Udite il mio consiglio, the shepherd Fileno warns his younger and less experienced fellows about the wiles of a “cute little shepherdess” who seems innocent, yet “no one else is so cruel, mendacious, and cunning.” On her Meridian recording of this cantata, soprano Julianne Baird sounds completely heartbroken, and so does Derek Lee Ragin on Channel Classics. I also can imagine it being done humorously. (“Bitter, party of one!”) Zazzo does neither, which is safe and musical, but perhaps not as interesting. Zazzo’s instrumentalists are stylish but also a bit staid, although Brachetta is lively and imaginative in his movement from the Suite in F.
 

This release is valuable primarily for its two premiere recordings, and for the conscientiousness of the performers, despite the slight liberties taken.

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