Handel: Alcina

Anja Harteros (Alcina), Vesselina Kasarova (Ruggiero), Kristina Hammarström (Bradamante), Veronica Cangemi (Morgana), Benjamin Bruns (Oronte), Adam Plachetka (Melisso), Alois Mühlbacher (Oberto)

Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble & Wiener Staatsballett, Marc Minkowski (conductor) & Adrian...

Adrian Noble's 2010 Vienna staging, to handsome designs by Anthony Ward, partially retains the magical ambience but as a setting within a setting...Noble extracts decent dramatic performances... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2011, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 30th Aug 2011
Catalogue No: 101571
Label: Arthaus Musik

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Handel: Alcina

Live Recording from The Wiener Staatsoper, 2010
Anja Harteros (Alcina), Vesselina Kasarova (Ruggiero), Kristina Hammarström (Bradamante), Veronica Cangemi (Morgana), Benjamin Bruns (Oronte), Adam Plachetka (Melisso), Alois Mühlbacher (Oberto)
Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble & Wiener Staatsballett
Marc Minkowski (conductor) & Adrian Noble (stage director)

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About

Set & Costumes by ANTHONY WARD

Handel’s operas are now so thoroughly a part of modern musical life that you might think every major opera house welcomes them. But until November 2010, when it introduced an absorbing new production of Alcina, the Vienna Staatsoper resisted them, not having done a Baroque opera since Monteverdi’s Poppea in the 1960s.

The present production boasted an all-star cast of Baroque specialists, a former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company – Adrian Noble, the highly-acclaimed conductor Marc Minkowski and his Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble in the pit.

Adrian Noble places his Alcina into a framework which begins in the magnifi cent ballroom of the Devonshire-House in London Piccadilly. The legendary Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, stages a play in which she is acting together with her friends, a stage on the stage.

Alcina is a great musical experience geared to the Baroque curiosity. Marc Minkowski revives Handel’s music in an outstanding way.

BONUS: Behind the Scenes

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: 2 x DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE, GB, FR, ES, IT, JP, Korean

Running Time: 205 mins (Opera) + 21 mins (Bonus)

FSK: 0

Artists

Anja Harteros (Alcina), Vesselina Kasarova (Ruggiero), Kristina Hammarström (Bradamante), Veronica Cangemi (Morgana), Benjamin Bruns (Oronte), Adam Plachetka (Melisso), Alois Mühlbacher (Oberto)

Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble & Wiener Staatsballett, Marc Minkowski (conductor) & Adrian Noble (stage director)

Reviews

December 2011

Adrian Noble's 2010 Vienna staging, to handsome designs by Anthony Ward, partially retains the magical ambience but as a setting within a setting...Noble extracts decent dramatic performances from all participants, even if they rarely achieve that sense of engagement such passionate material demands...The DVD features consistently high-quality music-making from Marc Minkowski and his French period-instrument band.

Conductor and orchestra are superb; so is Anja Harteros, who finds real depth in Alcina's passion for Ruggiero. After an effortful start in her opening aria, Veronia Cangemi is well on form in 'Credete al mio dolore'. Kristina Hammarström looks and sounds well as Bradamante.

November 2011

Harteros's willowy figure and terrically responsive facial features are huge assets for Alcina. Her warm lirico-spinto instrument boasts the necessary range and flexibility...Truly phenomenal is Alois Mühlbacher (Oberto), with spot-on intonation, excellent coloratura and a surprisingly colourful timbre. He's also adorable to watch...Marc Minkowski and his Musiciens du Louvre contribute terrific dramatic flair and, of course, technique and musicianship of the highest order.

August 2014

Anja Harteros, now primarily associated with Verdi and Wagner, brings tonal opulence and an imposing elegance to the eponymous sorceress in this 2010 Vienna production by Adrian Noble. Perhaps not everyone will take to Vesselina Kasarova's chesty-sounding Ruggiero, but I think she's magnificent!

2nd December 2011

an imaginative and colourful production from the Vienna State Opera, directed by former RSC boss Adrian Noble. Wittily staged as though it was an amateur theatrical entertainment mounted by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and her friends, it features a fabulous performance by soprano Anja Harteros in the title role

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Handel: Alcina

2 DVD Videos

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