Handel
Amadigi di Gaula
Tim Mead, Mary Bevan, Anna Dennis, Hilary
Summers, Patrick Terry; Early Opera Company/Christian Curnyn
Chandos CHSA 0406(2) (CD/SACD) 157:16 mins (2 discs)
Handel took a less-is-more approach to his Amadigi di Gaula. Christian Curnyn’s answering restraint reveals the stark solos, shimmering textures, ringing silences and stunning one-to-a-part counterpoint of music that fairly bursts with its composer’s early genius. Written in 1715 to indulge King George I’s French taste, Amadigi is Handel’s three-act Italian opera version of a five-act 1699 tragédie lyrique. Its action revolves around jealous sorceress Melissa’s failure to wrest Amadigi from his beloved Oriana, a story which moved Handel to write starkly contrasting numbers, including nine slow laments and some of the most sensual wind solos of his career. Curnyn casts the work’s voice, obbligato and continuo parts into perfect constellations, as in ‘Penna tiranno’, whose mournful bassoon part overflows and overcomes everyone else, echoing the aria’s words.
Mary Bevan sings the central role of Melissa with transfixing intensity
At the centre of the
