Handel: Alcina

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…mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato brings firebrand fioritura (vocal embellishment), impeccably naturalistic recitative and an inimitable everywoman pathos to the soprano title-role. — BBC Music Magazine, June 2009, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 16th Mar 2009
Catalogue No: 4777374
Label: DG Archiv
Series: Alan Curtis Handel Operas
Length: 3 hours 22 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

May 2009

Editor's Choice
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Handel: Alcina

Work length3:22:43

$62.05

$83.95

Sonia Prina (contralto), Karina Gauvin (contralto), Laura Cherici (soprano), Kobie van Rensburg (tenor), Karina Gauvin (soprano), Joyce DiDonato (soprano), Vito Priante (bass), Maite Beaumont (mezzo-soprano)
Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis
Recorded: 2007-09-17
Recording Venue: Chiesa Sant' Agostino

Overture

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Musette

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Menuet

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Oh Dei! Quivi non scorgo

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O s'apre al riso

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Questo è il cielo de' contenti

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Gavotte

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Sarabande

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Gavotte da capo

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Menuett

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Gavotte

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Ecco l'infido

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Di' cor mio, quanto t'amai

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Generosi guerrier, deh

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Chi m'insegna il caro padre

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Mi ravvisi, Ruggier

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Di te mi rido, semplice stolto

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Qua dunque

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È gelosia, forza è d'amore

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Io dunque

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Bramo di trionfar

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La cerco invano

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Semplicetto! a donna credi?

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Ah, infedele, infedel!

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Si, son quella, non più bella

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Se nemico mi fossi

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La bocca vaga

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A quai strani perigli

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Tornami a vagheggiar

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Col celarvi a chi v'ama un momento

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Qual portento mi richiama

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Pensa a chi geme

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Qual odio

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Vorrei vendicarmi del perfido cor

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Chi scuopre al mio pensiero

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Mi lusinga il dolce affetto

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S'acquieti il rio sospetto

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Ama, sospira, ma non t'offende

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Non scorgo

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Mio bel tesoro

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Regina, io cerco in vano

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Tra speme e timore

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Regina, sei tradita!

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Ah! mio cor! schemito sei!

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Or, che dici

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E' un folle, è un vil affetto

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Ed è ver che mi narri?

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Verdi prati

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Ah! Ruggiero crudel, tu non mi amasti!

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Ombre pallide, lo so, mi udite

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Sinfonia

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Voglio amare

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Credete al mio dolore

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M'inganna, me n'avveggo

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Un momento di contento

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Molestissimo

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Ma quando tornerai

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Tutta d'armate squadre

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Sta nell'Ircana pietrosa tana

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Vanne tu seco ancora

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All'alma fedel

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Niuna forza

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Mi restano le lagrime

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Sin per le vie

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Già vicino è'l momento

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Barbara! io ben lo so

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Le lusinghe

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Non è amor, né gelosia

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Prendi, e vivi.Ruggiero vuol la tua libertà

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Dall'orror

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Entrée

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Tamburino

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Dopo tante amare pene

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About

Under baroque-pioneer conductor Alan Curtis, the sorceress Alcina bewitches as never before for Handel year 2009. 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

Reviews

June 2009

…mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato brings firebrand fioritura (vocal embellishment), impeccably naturalistic recitative and an inimitable everywoman pathos to the soprano title-role.

2010

Alan Curtis clearly welcomed the chance to add this masterpiece to the gradually expanding list of Handel operas he has recorded with Il Complesso Barocco. This Alcina is polished and passionate, the standard of da capo ornamentation unsurpassed. The acoustical environment of this recording is near-perfect. Every detail can be clearly heard, in part because of the minimal instrumental resources Curtis employs and his keen sense of the architecture and pacing of Handel's music.
Handel knew his singers' individual strengths and played to them. Curtis, too, knows how to coax the best from his singers. Joyce DiDonato, Maite Beaumont and Karina Gauvin have worked with him before and contribute vividly informed portrayals of the principal characters that stand comparison with the best performances on previous recordings. Technically, DiDonato is superb: her Alcina is a complex, feminine creature, vain and vindictive – listen to her spine-tingling performance of 'Ombre pallide' and the recitative that precedes it in Act 2.
Beaumont is at ease in Carestini's role as Ruggiero – heroic when required (as in 'Bramo di trionfar', the discarded aria, originally in Act 1 scene 7, that Curtis reinstated) – and more than equal to the demands of the much-loved 'Verdi prati' (Act 2). Gauvin, her silk-clad Morgana fully as manipulative as Alcina, and Prina, the ever faithful Bradamante, each bring tremendous spirit and sensuousness to their roles. If Van Rensburg's Oronte wavers momentarily in Act 3, Priante's steadfast Melisso and Cherici's courageous Oberto show the way. This could well be the Alcina we've been waiting for.

May 2009

This Alcina is polished and passionate, the standard of da capo ornamentation unsurpassed. The acoustical environment of this recording is near-perfect. Every detail can be clearly heard, in part because of the minimal instrumental resources Curtis employs and his keen sense of architecture and pacing of Handel's music. Technically, DiDonato is superb: her Alcina is a complex, feminine creature, vain and vindictive - listen to her spine-tingling performance of "Ombre pallide" and the recitative that precedes it in Act 2.

2010

[DiDonato is] dramatically very impressive, while Maite Beaumont is a strong Ruggiero and Karina Gauvin a seductive Morgana.

22nd March 2009

Joyce DiDonato’s velvety, sensuous mezzo is a surprising choice for Handel’s majestically tormented sorceress, darker of voice than Sutherland, and she might have trouble with higher-lying phrases in the theatre. She rises magnificently to the challenges of Alcina’s great, wrenching scenes of despair and is preferable both to Sutherland’s droopy wordlessness and Fleming’s smoochy, Handel-on-Broadway solecisms. Maite Beaumont’s Ruggiero is in the Berganza class, while Karina Gauvin (Morgana), Sonia Prina (Bradamante), Kobie van Rensburg (Oronte) and Vito Priante (Melisso) bring character and impeccable stylistic credentials to the supporting roles. This is the must-have Alcina on disc.

10th April 2009

Joyce DiDonato takes the title role. Nothing about Alcina is quite what it seems, and here we have a mezzo singing a soprano's music with considerable finesse, but with occasional moments of telltale strain. This is also a performance of immense calculation, so that while we're aware of Alcina's allure, we're also continually questioning her emotional veracity...Karina Gauvin is to die for as Morgana, and Kobie van Rensburg is the best of all Orontes.

28th April 2009

. Here Joyce DiDonato sings the marvellous title role with dramatic fire and unfailing musicality.
Her suitors Ruggiero (Maite Beaumont) and Bradamante (Sonia Prina) are well contrasted, and there’s a delightful Morgana from Karina Gauvin. The scholar-conductor Alan Curtis leads his band Il Complesso Barocco to play with careful elegance and the performance as a whole is refreshingly crisp and disciplined.

14th March 2009

Handel's music is beyond magnificent and DiDonato's sorceress Alcina proves a triumph of dramatic fire. Karina Gauvin's Morgana suffers most beautifully; Maite Beaumont's hero Ruggiero less so. Yet no voice ruins the show, and Alan Curtis's Il Complesso Barocco creates orchestral beauty with every note.

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Handel: Alcina

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