2020. 2. 18. 12:45ㆍ카테고리 없음
There were already two Alcina recordings in the catalogue that no Handelian would want to be without; and now there are three. This latest version was made at the performances last summer under William Christie at the old Paris Opera, the Palais Garnier, as one can hear from the various thumps and other stage sounds, the slight audience noise, and the half-minute or so of enthusiastic applause at the end of each act (it would have been justified at many other points).The performance shows the typical Christie touch: polished and sweet-toned playing, well-judged balance, care for detail. No doubt it is a consequence of performing in a large house that the tempos are on the slower side of average, generally speaking, although there is no lack of fire in the big virtuoso pieces. The orchestral playing, with a good-sized band (strings 9.7.5.7.2), is always warm and shapely, from the sparkling overture onwards - where Christie takes the Un peu lentement of the musette (played after the minuet) quite literally. The opera is given virtually complete, following the Chrysander score; one aria (Oronte's first) is shorn of its middle section and da capo, and another is slightly abbreviated.
The only ballet music included (besides the dances in the overture) are the entree and tamburino in the final scene.There have been some magnificent Alcinas in the past, headed by the two on record, Dame Joan Sutherland and Arleen Auger. Renee Fleming is in the same class. Less conscious a stylist, perhaps, than Auger, less obviously brilliant than Sutherland, she sings with great intensity. When you first hear her voice, in 'Di, cor mio', you are at once struck by the nobility of tone and demeanour in those clear, ringing top notes, so precisely placed. She compels sympathy for this odious character with her passion in the second aria, with the long lines drawn with such pathos in 'Ah! Mio cor', even in the venomous singing of the great recitative and the furious passion of the wonderful aria, 'Ombre pallide' - this, incidentally, taken rather quickly - that ends Act 2 (its jagged chromatic runs perfectly managed, even at speed). There is emotional force even to the lighter 'Ma quando tornerai' in Act 3, and her climactic last aria, an F sharp minor siciliano, is taken slowly enough to make the most of its pathos.
Fleming has a way of making the beginning of each da capo section a point of special emotional stress, even when it doesn't seem particularly appropriate: perhaps this has something to do with the stage production. But as a performance, and a reading of this marvellous role, hers is of a very high order.There are others to match. Susan Graham, in the primo uomo role of Ruggiero, has some of the opera's finest music, and brings to it a firm, full mezzo, clear and agile. The famous 'Verdi prati', her poignant farewell to the enchantments of Alcina's realm, is very simply and beautifully sung, with no ornamentation at all, and the result amply justifies it. Equally fine is her account of 'Mi lusinga', earlier in Act 2, another of this marvellous opera's outstanding numbers: listen to her exquisitely silky, almost sultry phrasing here, subtly different in the da capo, where there is some lovely pianissimo singing - again, this is virtually unornamented. In other arias she sings with the particular delicacy of line that the music, written for the castrato Carestini, seems to call for. The climax of Ruggiero's role is its single fast number, 'Sta nell'Ircana', which, with splendid orchestral support (including horns), she dispatches in forthright fashion.Bradamante's role, although a woman's, is full of fast, athletic numbers.
Kathleen Kuhlmann sang it on the Hickox recording and again does it with great vigour and resource here, the semiquaver runs (for example, in 'Vorrei, vendicarmi') done with absolute precision, whether articulated or phrased, the tone rich and warm with an attractive gleam. Natalie Dessay brings her full and warm soprano to Morgana's music, with plenty of spirit, a touch of the coquettish where called for, and beautifully exact placing of the staccato notes in 'Tornami a vagheggiar'. Her ornamentation sometimes takes her to dizzying heights.
Two orchestral soloists shine with her, the refined violinist in her Act 2 aria and the cellist, jointly expressive with her in the pathetic aria that begins Act 3.Timothy Robinson sings smoothly and gracefully as Oronte, with a pleasantly effortless-sounding delivery, in his arias in Acts 2 and 3 particularly. The singer of Oberto, Juanita Lascarro, has an agreeably boyish timbre that suits the role well and does not preclude fiery singing in the final aria. Laurent Naouri provides a flexible, well-defined bass in Melisso's aria.Most of the cast 'ornament' the da capo sections of their arias, which of course is appropriate. There is, however, a tendency to regard ornamentation simply as change - that is, to rewrite the lines to fit in with Handel's harmony (by and large), but often without making the music more exciting or more expressive than it was (but usually damaging it melodically: the person who wrote the best tunes to Handel's basses was, without exception, Handel).
Adding trills, expressive appoggiaturas, flourishes or different kinds of division is one thing; just rewriting is another, and it doesn't always work very well, as is demonstrated here and in other recent Handel opera recordings, destroying the expressive character of Handel's lines without corresponding gain. Editors and performers do need to give this more careful and informed thought.Still, this Alcina is by no means a worse offender than the existing versions - far from it, in fact. The singers are not in the main baroque specialists and the orchestra is much less aggressively 'period' in tone than some.
Https Musescore Com User
But the opera is done with the spirit and the passion that its superb music calls for and I have no hesitation in recommending this set as, taken all round, the best now to be had.Stanley Sadie.