Mdt has currently on offer few Curtis/Archiv Handel operas. Are they any good? If are which one would be first pick?
I have all three, but haven't listened to
Tolomeo yet. I first listened to
Floridante on headphones on a sunny day last Easter, sitting on a balcony overlooking the sea, and thought it was a delicious way of spending an afternoon. There's a wonderful highlight with the duet 'Fuor di periglio', which is so spine-tinglingly beautiful and so perfectly sung that I went on playing it for days afterwards. I couldn't be without it.
I've just made a start on
Rodelinda this very day, in fact - and my feeling so far is that this may be a notch or two higher up the ladder - the overture is so good I played it twice over. Frankly, I don't think you can go far wrong whichever you get.