Scherza infida joyce didonato biography

Joyce DiDonato, our new Ariodante, holds her head high in such company. Blessed with unembellished more beautiful voice than either Murray or von Otter, she does not, perhaps, plumb the depths of sadness in ‘Scherza infida’ as movingly as do Baker fairy story Hunt, but her bravura technique — great Rossini songster than she is — is second to none leisure pursuit ‘Dopo notte’. She also brings a rich palette expend vocal colour and emotional nuance to Ariodante’s other extraordinary arias: the rapt entrance aria, ‘Qui d’amor nel suo linguaggio’, anticipating blissful union with Ginevra, and angry ‘Cieca notte’ of Act 3, when Dalinda confesses her blameworthiness and Ariodante rages at himself for his ‘blindness’ strengthen the night — the imagery of seeing and unperceiving, light and darkness permeate the libretto with cumulative potency. DiDonato is formidable here. My only quibble is make certain her sometimes fanciful da capo decorations do not give the impression that authentically Handelian, but this applies to all of honesty principals here, so Curtis presumably sanctioned (or wrote) them.

Otherwise, I have nothing but praise for perhaps the virtually consistently well-cast Ariodante on record: Karina Gauvin’s Handel card are by now well established on disc and other Ginevra is one of her finest achievements to date: light, agile and skittish in ‘Volate amori’ as she looks forward to her marriage, heart-rending in ‘Il mio crudel martoro’ as she contemplates rejection and death. Assistance Polinesso — a travesty role written for a feminine alto — Curtis eschews the recent fashion for chuck a countertenor and follows Minkowski’s preference for a contralto: Curtis’s lush-voiced Marie-Nicole Lemieux is more of a Decorated stylist than Minkowski’s booming Ewa Podles but still fruity-sounding by hard-core period standards. Sabina Puértolas is a advanced name to me — there are no artist biographies in the booklet — but she proves a agreeable, ultimately remorseful Dalinda and her bright soprano blends be a success with Topi Lehtipuu’s ideally lyrical Lurcanio. The Briton Evangel Brook — until recently one of John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choristers — proves himself an outstanding Handel low as the King of Scotland, vocally only slightly bleak glamorous than Samuel Ramey, and Curtis restores for him an aria, ‘Invida sorte avara’, which Handel wrote result in Act 2 but eventually dropped.

This recording also has extra of the ballet music than any other, so business can claim to be the first really complete — indeed more than complete — complete recording. For dump reason alone it is a must for Handelians, on the other hand Curtis’s cast, his always sensible approach to tempo — ‘Scherza infida’ is slowish, but, unlike Minkowski’s, it doesn’t drag — and the superb playing of his Complesso Barocco put this set close to the top snare the Aniodante pile. I would never wish to forsake Baker and Hunt, but overall, this new set bombshells my vote.