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Handel - Alcina

£35.44

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Label: Pentatone

Cat No: PTC5187084

Barcode: 8717306260848

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 3

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 2nd February 2024

Works

Handel, George Frideric

Alcina, HWV34

Artists

Magdalena Kozena (mezzo-soprano)
Erin Morley (soprano)
Anna Bonitatibus (mezzo-soprano)
Alois Muhlbacher (countertenor)
Elizabeth DeShong (mezzo-soprano)
Valerio Contaldo (tenor)
Alex Rosen (bass)
Les Musiciens du Louvre

Conductor

Marc Minkowski

Works

Handel, George Frideric

Alcina, HWV34

Artists

Conductor

Marc Minkowski

About

Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre return to Handel with a complete recording of his opera Alcina. The title role is interpreted by Magdalena Kožená, who reunites with Les Musiciens and maestro Minkowski after a series of acclaimed baroque recordings. She is joined by an excellent cast of soloists, consisting of Erin Morley (Morgana), Anna Bonitatibus (Ruggiero), Elizabeth DeShong (Bradamante), Alois Mühlbacher (Oberto), Valerio Contaldo (Oronte) and Alex Rosen (Melisso). This studio recording transports the listener to Alcina’s enchanted island, and shows Handel at the peak of his power: the score is dramatic, lush and colourful as well as introspective and profound where the story requires it.

Since its foundation in 1982, and under the baton of its founder and musical director Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre have developed into one of the world’s best period-instrument ensembles, with a vast discography. The ensemble returns to Pentatone after having presented Mozart’s Mass in C minor in 2020. Alcina is star mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená’s fifth album as part of her exclusive collaboration with Pentatone, after having presented the baroque cantatas recital album Il giardino dei sospiri and the songs in chamber-musical setting project Soirée in 2019, as well as Nostalgia together with Yefim Bronfman (2021) and Folk Songs with the Czech Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle (2023). The other soloists all make their Pentatone debut.

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Ouverture
2

Atto 1: O s’apre al riso
3

Atto 1: Questo è il cielo di contenti
4

Atto 1: Sarabande
5

Atto 1: Di, cor mio, quanto t’amai
6

Atto 1: Chi m’insegna il caro padre
7

Atto 1: Di te mi rido
8

Atto 1: È gelosia
9

Atto 1: Semplicetto! A donna credi?
10

Atto 1: Sì, son quella
11

Atto 1: La bocca vaga
12

Atto 1: Torna mi a vagheggiar
13

Atto 2: Col celarvi a chi v’ama un momento
14

Atto 2: Qual portento
15

Atto 2: Pensa a chi gene d’amor piagata
16

Atto 2: Qual odio ingiusto contro me?
17

Atto 2: Vorrei vendicarmi del perfido cor
18

Atto 2: Mi lusinga il dolce affetto
19

Atto 2: Ama, sospira
20

Atto 2: Mio bel tesoro
21

Atto 2: Tra speme e timore
22

Atto 2: Ah, mio cor!
23

Atto 2: È un folle
24

Atto 2: Verdi prati
25

Atto 2: Ah! Ruggiero crudel
26

Atto 2: Ombre pallide
27

Atto 2: Entrée des Songes agréables
28

Atto 2: Entrée des Songes funestes
29

Atto 2: Entrée des Songes agréables effrayés
30

Atto 3: Credete al mio dolore
31

Atto 3: Un momento di contento
32

Atto 3: Ma quando tornerai
33

Atto 3: Sta nell’ircana pietrosa
34

Atto 3: All’alma fedel
35

Atto 3: Mi restano le lagrime
36

Atto 3: Già vicino è’l momento
37

Atto 3: Barbara! Io ben lo so
38

Atto 3: Non è amor
39

Atto 3: Dall’orror di notte cieca
40

Atto 3: Entrée
41

Atto 3: Dopo tante amare

Europadisc Review

First performed in April 1735 at Covent Garden, Alcina was the fourth of Handel’s operas to be based on Lodovico Ariosti’s epic poem Orlando furioso, and the third (after Rinaldo and Orlando) to include an enchantress as a central character. In fact, Alcina has two: the title character and her sister, Morgana. The plot – much adapted to suit London tastes – centres on the efforts of Bradamante to rescue her betrothed, Ruggiero, from bewitchment on Alcina’s enchanted island. It offered plenty of opportunity for lavish stage effects, and the participation of Marie Sallé’s ballet company was an added attraction, leading to the incorporation of several extended dance numbers.

After 1738 Alcina entered almost two centuries of neglect. It was revived in Leipzig in 1928, but it was a 1960 production at La Fenice starring the young Joan Sutherland that really put the work – and the singer – on the map. It soon became one of the mainstays in the postwar Handel revival. As well as being scenically spectacular, Alcina is a cornucopia of magnificent music, with the composer at the peak of his game. Ruggiero’s Act 2 aria ‘Verdi prati’ became an instant hit with the public, rivalling in popularity ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from Rinaldo. All seven characters are given substantial arias – even Bradamante’s nephew Oberto (originally sung by the 15-year-old ‘Young Mr Savage’) searching for his lost father. With such musical riches, Alcina is well-suited to audio recording, where the listener’s imagination can supply the fantastic scenery, and it has been well-served on disc over the years.

Few conductors are so experienced in Alcina as Marc Minkowski, and at the head of his Musiciens du Louvre he has assembled a magnificent cast for a new CD recording – the first in a decade or so – on the Pentatone label. It is headed by mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená in the title role, bringing a warmth and sympathy to the character and charting her decline from commanding sorceress to an emotionally bereft shadow. Her Act 1 aria ‘Di, cor mio, quanto t’amai’ is particularly commanding, while betraying a tender soul. At the end of Act 2, ‘Ombre pallide’ is both desperately defiant and touching. This is an assumption which downplays vocal fireworks in favour of a more rounded portrayal of the character, yet thanks to Minkowski’s nicely driven pacing the attention never flags.

But Alcina is very much more than a one singer opera. As the lovers whose separation is at the centre of the plot, mezzos Anna Bonitatibus (Ruggiero) and Elizabeth DeShong (Bradamante) are simply outstanding. Bradamante’s Act 1 ‘È gelosia’ and Act 2 ‘Vorrei vendicarmi del perfido cor’ are virtuoso showstopper dispatched with extraordinary fire and élan, while Bonitatibus’s intense but subtle vibrato draws the listener into ‘Mi lusinga il dolce affetto’, and ‘Verdi prati’ is a veritable masterclass in vocal shading. Soprano Erin Morley has sparkling top notes as Alcina’s more vulnerable sister Morgana: her Act 3 aria ‘Credete al mio dolore’ with its doleful cello solo is especially affecting, while in Act 2 ‘Ama, sospira’ her bright tone is wonderfully complemented by Alice Piérot’s sweet-toned violin solo.

As Alcina’s general Oronte, tenor Valerio Contaldo has a slightly nasal edge, but he copes admirably with the athletic vocal demands of his fizzing Act 2 aria ‘È un folle’. Young countertenor Alois Mühlbacher makes an appropriately youthful Oberto, with a light, pure tone more akin to a male soprano. Completing the vocal line-up, bass Alex Rosen makes a solid, dependable impression as Bradamante’s tutor Melisso.

As in Handel’s original performances, the chorus is relatively small-scale (just two singers per part), but the orchestra is a formidable one (including no fewer than three double basses). Minkowski coaxes a glorious panoply of textures from his players, as well as some authentic feeling sound effects, notably when Alcina’s island kingdom starts to disintegrate in Act 3 as the counter-charms of Bradamante and her allies work their magic. Minkowski’s speeds are consistently energising, yet with room for vocal give-and-take and perfectly judged ornamentation. The dance episodes in each Act are utterly charming, oozing a stylishness of which these players are seasoned masters.

The sense of an interpretation that has been long in consideration yet still remarkably fresh pervades the whole performance, and the stellar voices gel into an even more impressive company feeling. Thoughtful booklet notes by Suzanne Aspden, as well as the full Italian libretto plus English and French translations, complement an exceptionally vivid recording made at the Auditorium de Bordeaux. This is a notable addition to the Handel discography, and those wanting an audio-only Alcina that positively leaps from the speakers in excellent modern sound need look no further.

Reviews

This new [recording of Alcina] scores highly, partly for the dramatic relish with which the conductor Marc Minkowski and his Musiciens du Louvre dispatch the music, but principally for a tour de force performance in the title role from the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená.

The Guardian 16 February 2024