Getting at Handel's operas and oratorios

Started by Tancata, July 10, 2007, 01:25:37 PM

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Elgarian

Quote from: DarkAngel on July 12, 2009, 04:09:27 PM
Actually I like the solo DiDonato "furore" aria collection even better, a collection of mad scences from Handel opera that features the perils of love as a theme........nothing more passionate or angry than a jilted lover  
The duet structure is by design going to be less a showcase of solo vocal talent, so here DiDonato is given free flight and soars where eagles dare, exciting dramatic powerful, Rousset & Les Talons deliver the orchestral goods......me likey  

Of it's kind I'm sure it's excellent - I just find it 'too much', and I can't warm to it.  But this is a purely personal thing - I've never been very keen on 'mad scenes' in general;

QuoteNow for the bad news
I did not like the Piau/Mingardo duet CD, something just does not quite work here, very earthbound performances that never take flight, the song selection does not work well or display the singers considerable talents........a sell for me
Sandrine how could you let your biggest fan down like this  :(

As you know, I share your disappointment in this, so you have my sympathy.

Elgarian

Quote from: DarkAngel on July 12, 2009, 04:20:45 PM
Be interesting if you share my findings............
that the early "aci, galatea-e-polifemo" italian cantata version is actually preferable to later reworking into english language two act opera "Acis and Galatea"  

Acis & Galatea is one of my very favourite Handel vocal works, beautifully recorded by a collection of my favourite performers, so at this moment I think it's unlikely that I'll prefer the earlier cantata. But, that said, the fragments I've heard so far do sound very lovely, so who knows? I expect to enjoy it very much, no matter what.

Elgarian


Elgarian

I can't recall this being discussed before:



I stumbled across it by accident today, and there are samples here:
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDH55262&f=helios%20fisher%20handel%20duets

I'm not generally strongly drawn towards countertenors, but in this case the lovely Gillian Fisher is singing with James Bowman, and the result is delightful, I think. It's on Helios, so inexpensive (and even cheaper than cheap at the moment in Hyperion's sale).


knight66

Although I very much like counter tenors; I find James Bowman difficult to take. Hooty and with an acidic tone. Just as well we don't all hear voices the same way; otherwise he would have been out of work for a long time by now.

Mike
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The new erato

Quote from: knight on July 14, 2009, 12:30:36 PM
Although I very much like counter tenors; I find James Bowman difficult to take. Hooty and with an acidic tone. Just as well we don't all hear voices the same way; otherwise he would have been out of work for a long time by now.

Mike
I was going to psot the same yesterday but forgot in the 9/11 frenzy    ;D

I'm quite partial to countertenors, but except for praising Mr Bowman for his valuable contributions as an example for the younger genereation, his voice is one of those I enjoy the least. Hooty is exactly the word (which I actually have used in another posting as regards James Bowman). Admirable yes, enjoyable; only partially I'm afraid.

Elgarian

#546


Ok guys (Mike, erato), I hear all you say, and as I said, I'm not the biggest fan of countertenors in general myself, and certainly not of Mr Bowman. But this CD arrived today, and I listened to the first half hour's worth of duets... and my prejudices went down like ninepins.

There's something about the delightful airiness of Gillian Fisher's singing that seems to couple in the most delicious way with Bowman's voice. You know how if you look at, let's say, a tree in an Impressionist painting, and cover up the shadow, then the tree just looks like a dull tree; and if you cover up the tree, then the shadow just looks like an uninteresting blue-grey blob. Yet together, the colour of each - shadow and tree - illuminates the other, and ignites the whole into something alive and vibrant so that the picture gives the illusion of actually being a source of light. Tell me I'm being fanciful if you like, but I feel that something like that is going on between the two voices on this disc.

I was making a meal listening to this, and I kept having to stop, and listen and tune in more fully - as if the very air was being transformed into something beyond the normal by the passage of the music through it. This could easily become a favourite Handel collection.

Of course over half of it remains unheard as yet; but that seems pretty exciting.

Bulldog

Quote from: Elgarian on July 16, 2009, 12:02:42 PM


Ok guys (Mike, erato), I hear all you say, and as I said, I'm not the biggest fan of countertenors in general myself, and certainly not of Mr Bowman. But this CD arrived today, and I listened to the first half hour's worth of duets... and my prejudices went down like ninepins.


Well, I'm a big fan of Mr. Bowman; his Handel Heroic Arias disc on Hyperion is my favorite Handel vocal recording.  No hoot to it at all, just beautifully expressive characterizations.

knight66

Perhaps James had his good years and his bad. I have unpleasant memories of him singing in Salisbury cathedral, St Matthew Passion.....I would have rather chewed my own legs off than listen to him again.

Having said that Alan, you make for a convincing advocate. But I think my Handel tank is full for the mo. I need to absorb what I have bought over the last month. The Acis and Throdora box has just arrived. The weekend hoves into view.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

71 dB

Just watched the first act of Theodora DVD (Glyndebourne Festival Opera/William Christie, 1996)

Sounds great. Lorraine Hunt shines.

The sets/choreoraphy look weird/radical. I like that, at least when done well.  0:)

Tomorrow act 2 (and perhaps even 3)
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Elgarian

#550
Quote from: 71 dB on July 16, 2009, 02:41:10 PM
Lorraine Hunt shines.

Yes, almost from the moment she appears she becomes a 'presence' - even when not singing. And when she sings .... well! Unbelievable.  :o

The new erato

Quote from: Elgarian on July 16, 2009, 11:33:48 PM
Yes, almost from the moment she appears she becomes a 'presence' - even when not singing. And when she sings .... well! Unbelievable. :o
Yes, she has amazing stage presence in that DVD, a marvellous actor obviously beside the great singing.

DavidRoss

Quote from: 71 dB on July 16, 2009, 02:41:10 PM
Just watched the first act of Theodora DVD (Glyndebourne Festival Opera/William Christie, 1996)

Sounds great. Lorraine Hunt shines.

The sets/choreoraphy look weird/radical. I like that, at least when done well.  0:)

Tomorrow act 2 (and perhaps even 3)
Now that seems intriguing:  Peter Sellars staging baroque opera with William Christie directing and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Dawn Upshaw in the leads.  An all-American production?

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Coopmv

Quote from: Elgarian on July 16, 2009, 11:33:48 PM
Yes, almost from the moment she appears she becomes a 'presence' - even when not singing. And when she sings .... well! Unbelievable.  :o

I thought Lorraine Hunt also started out as a violinist before taking up vocal in her twenties ...

Wendell_E

Quote from: Coopmv on July 17, 2009, 05:31:22 AM
I thought Lorraine Hunt also started out as a violinist before taking up vocal in her twenties ...

Actually, she was a violist.  I guess she was too good a musician to stick to that instrument.   ;D
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Coopmv

Quote from: Wendell_E on July 17, 2009, 12:09:38 PM
Actually, she was a violist.  I guess she was too good a musician to stick to that instrument.   ;D

You meant too good of a vocalist?

knight66

It was a joke.

She sang initially as a soprano. Her recordings, fine but not distinctive. Then she opened up as a mezzo; I think it was then that she truly found her voice, artistically as well as physically. Then the performances became distinctive and memorable.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

Elgarian

Quote from: knight on July 16, 2009, 01:12:04 PM
The Acis and Throdora box has just arrived. The weekend hoves into view.

The Acis, I predict, will enchant you. The Theodora, though good on its own terms, will probably disappoint, because you're coming to it from a Glyndebourne/Hunt-Lieberson perspective, and nothing can live up to that.

knight66

Alan, You are correct about the Theodora, which though fine, simply pales besides the favoured Glyndbourne cast. I played quite a bit of it, but was a little disappointed. The visceral drama is pretty much missing. Juliette Galstien has none of the focus that Hunt Lieberson provided to the unadorned written vocal line. Not only does Galstein utilise decoration to provide a pale kind of emphasis, but her non English vowels are often slighly wrong, less round and produced from the hard palate. So the benediction of, 'As with rosy steps' is a penny plain affair.

Daniel Taylor is good, but with not near the juice of the voice David Daniels produces. He does not sound nearly as committed. Sophie Daenman is excellent as Theodora.

Something that surprised me was that on the sixth disc, there are three Italian Cantatas sung by Eva Mei. I am looking forward to those and to the Acis.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

Elgarian

Quote from: knight on July 17, 2009, 01:16:24 PM
So the benediction of, 'As with rosy steps' is a penny plain affair.

Yes I agree. And also ...

QuoteSophie Daneman is excellent as Theodora.

I love Sophie D's singing with a great passion, but even though she makes a really good shot at the part, I think there's something a bit missing from her version of 'With darkness deep'. It isn't dark, nor deep enough. Not her fault; her voice doesn't do dark and deep. But there it is.