Angelika Kirchschlager items at amazon.co.uk - Favourite and not so favourite Handel recordings and DVDs

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Favourite and not so favourite Handel recordings and DVDs

	Rodelinda - Glyndebourne Festival Opera [DVD] [1998] Buy new: £14.98 A performance full of dramatic intensity which shows how unerring Handel's gift for the theatre was. Simply unmissable.
	Giulio Cesare - Handel (Glyndebourne Festival) [DVD] [2006] Buy new: £34.98 / Used from: £28.27 Musically and dramatically superb, this opera proves that Handel Opera is alive and it is great fun too. If I had to save a DVD, this would be it. Superb singing by De Nise and Connolly.
	Theodora - Glyndebourne Festival Opera [DVD] [1996] [NTSC] Buy new: £13.98 This production benefits from a great performance by Daniels and Upshaw, a fine orchestral rendition and a staging that gives the theme of dissident belief suppression an intriguing modern perspective
	Handel-Rinaldo [DVD] [2003] Buy new: £29.39 The incoherent gangster-themed staging intrudes into the opera and belittles Daniels fine performance. Axel Kohler sounds weak and forced. To be "watched" with your eyes closed.
	Handel - Agrippina Combattime [DVD] [2006] by Handel Buy used from: £18.18 This DVD runs counter to everything I believe in concerning Handel interpretations. Part transpositions and unacceptable cuts afflict the production, despite some good commitment from the cast.
	Handel - Serse / Rasmussen · Hallenberg · Bardon · Bayrakdarian · Piau · Lippi · Peirone · Les Talens Lyriques · Rousset · Hampe [Semperoper Dresden 2000] [DVD] This DVD has a lot going for it. The singing is superb and the performance is gripping. Atalanta steals the show. Fantastic performance from king to servant.
	Handel: Tamerlano [2001] [DVD] Buy new: £29.39 / Used from: £29.38 The singing and playing is beautiful but the staging, albeit colourful, is too static, making the opera feel longer than it is.
	Georg Friedrich Handel: Agrippina [DVD] [2004] [US Import] by Handel Buy used from: £94.00 This performance is well sung and well performed, much to be preferred to the Combattimento Consort version. Outstanding singing abounds. Pity about the intrusive French subtitles projected on stage.
	Handel - Hercules [2005] (Les Arts Florissants/William Christie) [DVD] Buy used from: £100.00 Intensely dramatic. Excellent performance of one of Handel's musical masterpieces.