Tír Na HiFi

Jose Echenique wrote:This post is about a new recording of Handel´s Alessandro just out in the Pan Classics label, but sorry, I couldn´t find a suitable cover, the picture is from American countertenor Lawrence Zazzo who sings the title role.
Alessandro was one of Handel´s most popular operas in his lifetime, only "Rinaldo" had more performances, so it´s puzzling why it´s so little performed in our time since the music is magnificent. Perhaps the extravagant vocal demands he puts in his 3 main characters explains this. The title role was sung by the famous castrato Senesino, the principal star of Handel´s company and perhaps the only other castrato in London to rival Farinelli. The 2 female leads were sung by Faustina Bordoni, a very famous soprano in Italy who was making her much anticipated London debut in this opera, and Francesca Cuzzoni, who was already a well established soprano. The public was eager to see sparks flying between the 2 prima donnas and Handel was only too happy to oblige, composing fiendishly difficult arias for them to display every weapon in their vocal armory.
Lawrence Zazzo braves valiantly Senesino´s music, though of course a castrato must have sounded completely different from a countertenor. The sopranos in this live recording are the Cuban Yetzabel Arias Fernández (I think it´s only proper that if you are a singer your last name is "Arias" LOL) and Raffaella Milanesi.
This recording was made live in February of this year during the Handel Festspiele Karlsruhe. The truly excellent orchestra is called the Deutsche Hàndel-Solisten and has many luminaries from the early music world. The conductor is recorder player Michael Form and he does an excellent job.
The only other recording of Alessandro is Sigiswald Kuijken´s for DHM but that is already more than 25 years old.
As it happens, DECCA has just announced another recording of Alessandro for October with a mouth watering cast including Max Emanuel Cencic and Karina Gauvin. Strangely they hired the Greek conductor Georges Petrou and his competent but not outstanding Patras Orchestra, well known for several recordings in the MDG label. The orchestra is good but not in the Deutsche Händel-Solisten class, so we will have to wait and see if Cencic and Gauvin justify the adding of yet another recording to the collection.

Jared wrote:^^yes, I'm really quite fond of that recording... delicate and melodic.

If I remember correctly, I think you, me & Fergus purchased that one, all around the same time...

edit: ah, my post refers to the Octet...