Secure checkout & satisfaction guaranteed by 
|
|
|
Handel: Alcina |  | Artists: Joyce DiDonato, Maite Beaumont, Karina Gauvin, Sonia Prina, Kobie Van Rensburg, Laura Cherici, Vito Priante
Creators: George Frideric Handel, Alan Curtis, Il Complesso Barocco
Label: Archiv Produktion
Category: Music
List Price: $35.98
Buy New: $21.07
as of 9/4/2010 22:43 CDT details
You Save: $14.91 (41%)
New (21) Used (5) from $21.07
Seller: blowitoutahere
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 101,801
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.9
UPC: 028947773740
EAN: 0028947773740
ASIN: B001M48X3Y
Release Date: April 14, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Ouverture | | • | Musette | | • | Menuet | | • | "O Dei! quivi non scorgo" (Bradamante, Melisso, Morgana) | | • | Aria: "O s'apre al riso" (Morgana) | | • | Coro: "Questo è il cielo di contenti" (Coro) | | • | Gavotte | | • | Sarabande | | • | Gavotte (da capo) | | • | Menuet | | • | Gavotte | | • | "Ecco l'infido" / "Taci!" (Bradamante, Melisso, Alcina) | | • | Aria: "Di', cor mio, quanto t'amai" (Alcina) | | • | "Generosi guerrier, deh! per pietade" (Oberto, Melisso, Bradamante) | | • | Aria: "Chi m'insegna il caro padre" (Oberto) | | • | "Mi ravvisi, Ruggier" (Bradamante, Ruggiero, Melisso) | | • | Aria: "Di te mi rido" (Ruggiero) | | • | "Qua dunque ne veniste" (Oronte, Bradamante, Morgana) | | • | Aria: "È gelosia, forza è d'amore" (Bradamante) | | • | "Io dunque..." (Oronte, Morgana) | | • | Aria: "Bramo di trionfar" (Ruggiero) | | • | "La cerco invano" (Ruggiero, Oronte) | | • | Aria: "Semplicetto! a donna credi?" (Oronte) | | • | "Ah, infedele, infedel!" (Ruggiero, Alcina) | | • | Aria: "Sì, son quella, non più bella" (Alcina) | | • | "Se nemico mi fossi" (Bradamante, Ruggiero) | | • | Aria: "La bocca vaga" (Ruggiero) | | • | "A quai strani perigli" (Melisso, Bradamante) | | • | Aria: "Tornami a vagheggiar" (Morgana) |
Disc 2
| • | Arioso: "Col celarvi a chi v'ama" (Ruggiero, Melisso) | | • | Arioso: "Qual portento mi richiama" (Ruggiero, Melisso) | | • | Aria: "Pensa a chi geme" (Melisso) | | • | "Qual odio ingiusto contro me?" (Bradamante, Ruggiero) | | • | Aria: "Vorrei vendicarmi" (Bradamante) | | • | "Chi scopre al mio pensiero" (Ruggiero) | | • | Aria: "Mi lusinga il dolce affetto" (Ruggiero) | | • | "S'acquieti il rio sospetto" (Alcina, Morgana) | | • | Aria: "Ama, sospira, ma non t'offende" (Morgana) | | • | "Non scorgo nel tuo viso" (Alcina, Ruggiero) | | • | Aria: "Mio bel tesoro" (Ruggiero) | | • | "Regina, io cerco invano" (Oberto, Alcina) | | • | Aria: "Tra speme e timore" (Oberto) | | • | "Regina, sei tradita!" (Oronte, Alcina) | | • | Aria: "Ah! mio cor, schernito sei!" (Alcina) | | • | "Or che dici, Morgana?" (Oronte, Morgana) | | • | Aria: "È un folle, è un vile affetto" (Oronte) | | • | "Ed è ver che mi narri?" (Oberto, Bradamante) | | • | Aria: "Verdi prati, selve amene" (Ruggiero) | | • | Recitativo accompagnato: "Ah! Ruggiero crudel" (Alcina) | | • | Aria: "Ombre pallide" (Alcina) |
Disc 3
| • | Sinfonia | | • | "Voglio amar e disamar" (Oronte, Morgana) | | • | Aria: "Credete al mio dolore" (Morgana) | | • | "M'inganna, me n'avveggo" (Oronte) | | • | Aria: "Un momento di contento" (Oronte) | | • | "Molestissimo incontro!" (Ruggiero, Alcina) | | • | Aria: "Ma quando tornerai" (Alcina) | | • | "Tutta d'armate squadre" (Melisso, Ruggiero, Bradamante) | | • | Aria: "Sta nell'ircana pietrosa tana" (Ruggiero) | | • | "Vanne tu seco ancora" (Melisso, Bradamante) | | • | Aria: "All'alma fedel" (Bradamante) | | • | "Niuna forza lo arresta" (Oronte, Alcina) | | • | Aria: "Mi restano le lagrime" (Alcina) | | • | Coro: "Sin per le vie del sole" (Coro) | | • | "Già vicino è 'l momento di cangiar" (Oberto, Alcina) | | • | Aria: "Barbara! Io ben lo so" (Oberto) | | • | "Le lusinghe, gl'inganni" (Bradamante, Alcina, Ruggiero) | | • | Terzetto: "Non è amor, né gelosia" (Alcina, Bradamante, Ruggiero) | | • | "Prendi, e vivi" (Ruggiero, Oronte) | | • | Coro: "Dall'orror di notte cieca" (Coro) | | • | Entrée | | • | Tamburino | | • | Coro: "Dopo tante amare pene" (Coro) |
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Alan Curtis, lauded by Opera as one of our finest conductors of Baroque opera, illumines Handel s masterpiece, Alcina, by casting, as heroine, the brilliant Joyce DiDonato. Since Alcina is historically dared by virtuosic sopranos like Sutherland and Battle, this innovative recording with a mezzo is a must-have not just for Alcina freaks but all who adore sensational vocalism. As Handel did in his time, Curtis arrays our era s finest Baroque singers such as Maite Beaumont and Karina Gauvin in supporting roles around his star. With this electrifying Alcina, first ever studio recording of the rarely heard Ezio and Rolando Villazón s new album, Handel Year 2009 is being exceptionally well feted by Deutsche Grammophon.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Another triumph for Joyce DiDonato April 27, 2009
J. Luis Juarez Echenique (Mexico City)
28 out of 29 found this review helpful
Alcina, Giulio Cesare, Ariodante and Orlando are Handel's greatest operas, and thanks to Alan Curtis and a quite formidable cast, here we have a winner. Alcina has been lucky on records, it was the first Handel opera to be recorded both with famous stars and with all the roles sung in the original registers, the 1961 DECCA recording with Sutherland, Berganza and Freni; then EMI gave us in 1985 the first recording with period instruments, and some 10 years ago ERATO was at hand in Paris to record some memorable performances at the Palais Garnier with both, opera stars and period instruments, boasting Renée Fleming, Susan Graham and Natalie Dessay in the leading roles and the exquisite musicians of Les Arts Florissants under William Christie in the pit. It was the hottest ticket in Paris at the time and listening to the recording you will see why. The new Archiv recording, much better than the Rodelinda with the same team, is a good match for the ERATO version. Joyce DiDonato, surprisingly singing soprano, is glorious in the title role. Her Alcina is memorable as an interpretation and as a piece of magnificent singing. I'm sure, in years to come, this recording will be cited as some of DiDonato's finest work. Less well known is Maite Beaumont, but she sings a virile and secure Ruggiero, perhaps not as individual as Susan Graham, but very good indeed. Karina Gauvin covers herself in glory in "Tornami a vagheggiar", not even Joan Sutherland would dare to steal the aria from her. Il Complesso Barocco is as stylish and elegant as ever, and Alan Curtis obviously loves the piece. Some think that the ERATO recording is too slow, and are uncomfortable with the opulent tones of Renée Fleming, but I think that William Christie, being the great opera conductor that he is, knows better than anyone how to work the drama of the piece. His conducting is a little more passionate and taut than Curtis', and it must be remembered: it is a live recording, with the pros and cons that come with it. I love both recordings and feel lucky to own them both. You should own at least one.
Curtis and his crew have outdone themselves again! May 21, 2009
Baroque and opera freak (Hong Kong)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
This being the Handel commemoration year, we Handel lovers are really being bathed in bliss with all these new Handel recordings, and we were also treated to the re-release in one box of six spectacular earlier recordings of Handel's operas by Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco on Virgin Classics -- the oldest going back 30 years!. Having spent the last couple of days listening in amazement to some of those earlier recordings, I could not resist putting on the new Alcina recording as soon as it arrived. I really didn't think that it would be possible for Curtis to do even better than his recent recording of Tolemeo, which (with Gauvin and Hallenberg) certainly outdid his already excellent previous recording of Floridante (with the all-star cast of Mijanovic, DiDonato, Invernizzi, Rostorf-Zamir and Priante). But on my first listening of Alcina, first of all it was obvious that this is the best performance that DiDonato has ever done -- she has finally fully found her ideal persona. And it may well be Gauvin's finest performance to date as well. The rich brightness of the sound comes right out of the HiFi and into your listening space as if the singers (and the musicians) were actually right there in your living room. Maite Beaumont -- a name totally new to me -- is also absolutely superb. And so is another new discovery -- the tenor Kobie van Rensburg. And helped by the fact that this is one of Handel's finest operas, the whole recording just reverberates with the consummate sound of an obvious all-time classic recording. People will still be listening to this in a hundred years -- though I won't be around to enjoy the verification of my prediction. That's OK -- I WILL be around to verify my prediction that it will win Opera Recording of the Year. While there are many great Handelian musicians, and quite a few great Handel conductors, it is obvious that Curtis has snatched the first prize in the competition to make the best recordings in this glorious 250th-anniversary Handel year. And now our next treat is Ezio! You will not believe DiDonato on this recording, who steals the stage even from Renee Fleming's recording of the same part.
Provisional Alert! March 16, 2010
Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I don't have time just now to re-listen to this excellent recording and I can't review it in detail without having it fresh in my mind. I merely want to state that it's the best performance of Handel's "Alcina" I've ever heard, either on a recording or live. The whole cast is not only superb of voice, but they all sing with the same highly consistent technique. That separates this recording from the older one by Bill Christie, on which Renée Fleming sang the lead role as if she had learned music as a different language from the others.... which, in fact, she had. If one singer on this 3-CD recording steals the show, by the way, it is Sonia Prina, but Joyce Di Donato has all the arts of a superb baroque soprano: 1) the ability to sing a straight and lovely tone at any dynamic and with accurate pitch; 2) grace! and flexibility over the faster passages and ornamentations.
And then there's the orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco, conducted by Alan Curtis! This, amici miei, is baroque instrumentalism that makes sense to the ears.
I've just written a review, probably a controversial one, of the 1959 recording of Alcina featuring Joan Sutherland. I said in that review that although Sutherland's performance deserved historical kudos, it is unlistenable now, when really fine performances are available. A major problem with that old recording is the ponderous romantic orchestra. You can hear "samples" of both recordings here on the amazon, and thus you can either confirm or vehemently reject my evaluation.
Stunning January 22, 2010
DBF
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Can't get enough of this recording, I keep going back to it on my ipod.
 Not having the last word on what IS Baroque... April 16, 2010
Abel (Hong Kong)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a very nice recording of Handel's Alcina. All the reviewers here remind that this performance IS the true Baroque style, while the older recordings, namely Boynge and Leitner and Christie, are NOT.
I do not pretend to be knowledgeable about what IS Baroque.
Entirely from the muscial angle, I do not think that the entire cast here outshone the 1959 Cologne cast.
Joyce Didonato as Alcina gives a emotionally charged and stylish performance, sung with more pathos and drama than Joan Sutherland, though strictly speaking, her voice is not on par with Sutherland's crystal clear timbre under Leitner's concert performance of this opera. Karina Guavin as Morgana is perhaps the true star of this cast. I wonder why she's not been casted as Alcina herself.
The other characters, Ruggiero's Maite Beaumont, despite the praise accorded to her, is not really the best if you compare her with Teresa Berganza's performance under Bonynge. She has the right timbre for the role, but her habit of singing with 'hairpin legato' and scooping on notes are not, I suppose, what is being demanded in the Baroque style. Ruggiero is not an easy character to handle, and I wonder if South African countertenor Christopher Ainsle, whom I've seen live in this role giving a totally comeptent performance, will some day record this role.
And as for Oronte, I have not heard any one out singing Monti under Leitner in the Cologne performance. Sonia Prina sung a sterling Bradamante, though.
Much commendation should be given to the conductor Alan Curtis and his Il Complesso Barocco. Curtis' treatment of the da capo in the arias of the opera should likewise be highly recommended as being the best treatment ever of those marvellous pieces.
|
|
|
