the cher public decides
La Cieca just listened to this new recording of Alcina starring Joyce DiDonato and Maite Beaumont. She’s not going to speak up immediately about her reactions, but will open the floor to discussion.
(If you can’t see the amazon mp3 player above, please click here
Is it me or do they sound a little closely miked? DiDonato’s, as well as the other singers, voice sounds thin and reedy. I’ve heard her in house and the voice is significantly rounder.
I heard the broadcast that the FARAO set is either based on or exactly the same as. I enjoy Bolton’s Handel a lot and Cangemi, Prina and Ainsley are quite fine but the two leads are not to my taste at all. Harteros is too heavy and unimaginative which make Alcina’s many arias pretty hard-going and although Kasarova is not the train-wreck she can be in this music (the slow arias aren’t bad at all) the faster music is extremely clumsy, full of the glottal explosions and register-chasms that have marred much of her recent singing.
Trappole–I’m not sure I would judge a recording’s sound quality from a few mp3 excerpts on Amazon’s player. The CDs sound fine to me.
Well.
Tenorino – I own the Farao set, and I would say give it a pass. It is good – not great – and certainly not worth the very expensive price for the FARAO label. It was recorded live, and doesn’t really stand comparison with the three “top contenders” (Hickox, Curtis, and Christie). Harteros has a beautiful sound (and her “Ah, mio cor” is well worth hearing), but as Hippolyte mentioned, she is terribly unimaginative and doesn’t do much with the role (!!). I am a Kasarova fan, but she has gotten increasingly mannered, and her Ruggiero, while respectable, doesn’t begin to approach the level of Beaumont or Graham – nevermind the masterful Della Jones (my favorite on the Hickox recording). Cangemi is OK, but also on the bland side, and Prina is really a bit of a train-wreck here – though the audience goes wild for her (I can’t figure out why, as her singing is raucous and at times, blatantly unmusical). Ainsley is SUPERB – perhaps the most thrilling of all the tenors under consideration here. Bolton’s conducting is average – nothing at all exceptional. Overall then, a slightly above-average recording, but ranked well behind the other sets metioned above.