Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Handel and Mozart Arias

Disc 2:

1. Verdi Arias

Disc 3:

1. Puccini and the Verismo school

Disc 4:

1. Italian and Spanish Arias

Disc 5:

1. French Arias

Disc 6:

1. Russian and German Arias

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8290 in Music
• Released on: 2009-02-23
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .62 pounds
• Running time: 166 minutes

Customer Reviews

Very fine recording of little known piece
This is really an excellent recording of one of Handel's lesser known later operas (composed just before Serse). Spoiled by a much cut libretto which leaves little of sense in the story, this piece is nevertheless filled with terrific music for all concerned. There is scarcely a dull number in the whole opera but one of my very favourites is 'Se ben mi lusingha' for the title character which ends Act 1 (even if the lovely 'trotting' melody rather belies the sentiment of the words).

I was very pleased with the playing of I Barrochisti for Diego Fasolis (a new name to me in Handel recordings). A uniformly excellent cast has been assembled. Max Cencic sings the title role with astonishing power and grace - the final aria is a real tour de force! I was also very impressed with Xavier Sabata as his rival Gernando. The third countertenor is probably the best known - Philippe Jaroussky - who brings another distinct sound, lighter and higher. There is a decent bass for the villain in In-Sung Sim. The two women are also very good; Sophie Karthauser bringing both agility and considerable power to the role of Clotilde and Marina de Liso, another addition to the range of current mezzo sopranos with truly beautiful and yet dramatic voices, as Faramondo's beloved Rosimonda.

Overall this recording must now be the top recommendation over the only other version available on Vox. To be fair, that is one of the American label's most successful Handel recordings and has some good performances from the often variable D'Anna Fortunato and the lovely Jennifer Lane but the new recording under Fasolis is more consistently pleasing. Highly recommended.

Stunning!
Fabulous singing and playing by all concerned. With so many fine arias, I cannot imagine why this work has remained unrecorded for so long - all Handel opera fans must add this to their collection without delay, especially at this low introductory price!

Pretty good
The plot is really too much complicated and make quite impossible to follow and to understand
completely the story.
In other words you should have to use a lot of effort to know all the
relationship between the characters or you should be a fan of very intricated story like soap operas.
Stated this first fact you can deilght the music of Handel (and this could be enough!).
The singer are of high level and the players do a pretty good job. But while the firsts puts emotions and
drama in their performance, the orchestra could have been more expressive.
At the end there is a lackness of dramatization and some arias results quite flat or
al least could have been done better with more punch from the side of the direction.
To be honest this opera has less density of beautiful arias than other famous Handel opera's and pheraps
with a lower average level of quality also. There are infact pretty long recitative parts (that should get more
clear the plot!?) and less arias in general.
A good purchase for the Handel opera fans