Handel: Rodelinda

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Of available recordings this set has the edge, for its greater dramatic urgency and richer characterisation. — BBC Music Magazine, August 2007 More…

Release Date: 13th Jun 2005
Catalogue No: 4775391
Label: DG Archiv
Series: Alan Curtis Handel Operas
Length: 3 hours 11 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

Opera Choice
Gramophone Magazine

September 2005

Editor's Choice

Handel: Rodelinda

Work length3:11:29

$54.40

$73.60

Simone Kermes (soprano), Steve Davislim (alto), Marijana Mijanovic (contralto), Sonia Prina (contralto), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto), Vito Priante (bass)
Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis
Recorded: 2004-09-01
Recording Venue: San Martino al Cimino, Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Sala Olimpia

Overture

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Menuetto

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Ho perduto il caro sposo

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Regina? Grimoaldo

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L'empio rigor del fato

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Duca, vedesti mai - È tanto, da che sei re

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Io già t'amai

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E tu dici d'amarmi?

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Lo farò; dirò: spietato

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Eduige, t'inganni

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Di Cupido impiego i vanni

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Sinfonia ed Accompagnato. Pompe vane di morte

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Dove sei, amato bene?

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Ma giunge Unulfo, oh Dio!

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Ombre, piante, urne funeste!

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Ombra del mio bel sol

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Baci inutili e vani

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Morrai, sì; L'empia tua testa

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E ben, Duca, poss'io all'ardor

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Se per te giungo a godere

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Unulfo, oh Dio!

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Sono i colpi della sorte (alternative version)

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Si l'infida consorte

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Confusa si miri l'infida consorte

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Già perdesti, o Signora - Rodelinda, sì mesta ritorni

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De' miei scherni per far le vendette

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Rodelinda, è pur ver?

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Spietati, io vi giurai

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Unulfo, Garibaldo

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Prigioniera ho l'alma in pena

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Massime così indegne

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Tirannia gli diede il regno

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Sì, sì, fellon, t'intendo

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Fra tempeste funeste a quest'alma

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Con rauco mormorio

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Ah no, che non m'inganna

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Scacciata dal suo nido

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Vive il mio sposo?

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Ritorna, oh caro e dolce mio tesoro

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Ah, sì! ecco lo sposo!

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Tuo drudo è mio rivale

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Non ti bastò, consorte

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Io t'abbraccio

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Dal german nel periglio

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Un zeffiro spirò

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Con opra giusta

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Quanto più fiera tempesta freme

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O falso è Bertarido

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Tra sospetti, affetti e timori

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Chi di voi fu più infedele

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Ma non so che dal remoto balcon - Non temere. Signor?

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Se'l mio duol non è sì forte

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Amico, ah, che a me duole

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Se fiera belva ha cinto

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Fatto inferno è il mio petto

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Pastorello d'un povero armento

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Che miro? Amica sorte - Tu morrai, traditor!

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Vivi, tiranno, io t'ho scampato

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Dunque sei Bertarido? - Eccoti innanzi il reo

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Mio caro, caro bene

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Sposa, figlio, sorella

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Appendix Aria - D'ogni crudel martir

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Dopo la notte oscura

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Appendix Aria - Sono i colpi della sorte

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Reviews
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Reviews

August 2007

Of available recordings this set has the edge, for its greater dramatic urgency and richer characterisation.

2010

Alan Curtis has done more than most to prove that many of Handel's 42 operas are first-rate music dramas – his Admeto, from 1979 (see page 465), was one of the first complete recordings of a Handel opera to feature period instruments and all voices at correct pitch without transpositions – but it is surprising to note that this is his first recording of an undisputed popular masterpiece.
Rodelinda, first performed in February 1725, is a stunning work dominated by a title-heroine who remains devoted to her supposedly dead husband Bertarido and scorns the advances of his usurper Grimoaldo. The potency of Handel's score was enhanced by the complexity of the villain, whose lust-driven cruelty gradually crumbles into a desire to abdicate in order to find spiritual peace. The scene in which the penitent tyrant's life is saved from assassination by the fugitive Bertarido is among Handel's greatest dramatic moments.
Simone Kermes is full of feisty courage, an assertive woman for whom Bertarido would credibly risk death to be reunited with. She takes no prisoners in some extravagant cadenzas, and sings 'Morrai, si' with thrillingly viscous venom.
At the other extreme, 'Ritorna o cara' is simply gorgeous. There are some weaknesses. Marijana Mijanovic's Bertarido often slips under pitch on long notes and uses indiscriminate vibrato instead of singing through phrases. Her deficiencies with tuning and idiomatic expression are highlighted in two duets with Kermes (one not recorded before), particularly when Handel demands that they sing sustained notes in unison.
There is a good case for using a fruity female contralto in castrato roles instead of an angelic countertenor but why Archiv seems keen to record Mijanovic's inadequate performances of Handel roles for his star castrato, Senesino is incomprehensible. A cursory comparison of Mijanovic's bizarrely unattractive 'Dove sei' with any of the impressive contributions from fellow contraltos Marie-Nicole Lemieux or Sonia Prina indicates that either would have better suited the role.
Otherwise, this has an abundance of good things. Il Complesso Barocco have sounded undernourished on some previous recordings but here play with admirable vitality and dramatic subtlety. Curtis has obviously worked hard to encourage his string players to understand what the singers are communicating: each aria is impeccably interpreted and intelligently paced. On the whole, Curtis's passion and experience ensure another typically persuasive and theatrical vindication of Handel's genius.

2010

Kermes copes splendidly with the enormous range demanded and the feats of coloratura, if with a slight edge at the top...[Mijanovic and Lemieux are] both excellent, with Mijanovic singing nobly in the most celebrated number, Dove sei. Outstanding even in this cast is the Australian tenor, Steve Davislim

Handel: Rodelinda

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