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Reviewer: David Vickers It is no mean feat to produce a Handel opera aria recital containing two of Cleopatra’s most popular showpieces (‘Piangerò la sorte mia’ and ‘Da tempeste’) and also Morgana’s flashy ‘Tornami a vagheggiar’ without things running on autopilot, but Amanda Forsythe’s intelligent and characterful singing means there’s no risk of these being merely yet another slog through audition warhorses. The remainder is a well-chosen batch. The shepherdess Dorinda’s exasperated mockery about the folly of love (‘Amor è qual vento’) could do with a rustic treatment of the long pedal bass notes, but Forsythe’s sparkling delivery shares a knowing wink. The lightweight top-heavy orchestral balance lacks the ideal theatrical punch for Atalanta’s exuberant scheming in ‘Un cenno leggiadretto’ (Serse), but works elegantly in Partenope’s whimsical observations on the vagaries of romantic attraction in ‘Qual farfalletta’ – and in both of these arias Forsythe’s lightly nonchalant delivery of Martin Pearlman’s embellishments is dazzling.
There is less familiar territory covered with the turbulent ‘Geloso tormento’ from Handel’s first opera, Almira (Hamburg, 1705), which features an impressive cantabile oboe obbligato played by Debra Nagy. Forsythe plumbs the depths of Armida’s self-pitying misery that Rinaldo does not love her (‘Ah, crudel!’). Agilea’s struggle to renounce Teseo despite the threats of her captor Medea (‘Amarti si vorrei’) has tragic intensity and is accompanied only by harpsichordist Jeanette Sorrell and cellist René Schiffer – it’s probably the best single moment of the recital, so it is a pity that its libretto text has been missed out. I winced at some trivialities and errors in the booklet-note, such as an incorrect explanation of Handel’s prologue Terpsicore added to the November 1734 revival of Il pastor fido – but Sorrell’s strategy to interleave four dances between clusters of arias is neatly effective. |
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