129.00 PLN

2 CD:

Nr kat.: URN22270
Label  : Urania (Italy)

Sosarme, Re di Media HWV30 (1732) Sosarme – Alfred Deller (counter-tenor) Haliate – William Herbert (tenor) Erenice – Nancy Evans (soprano) Elmira – Margaret Ritchie (soprano) Argone – John Kentish (tenor) Melo – Helen Watts (contralto) Altomaro – Ian Wallace (bass-baritone) St Anthony Singers The St Cecilia Orchestra/Anthony Lewis Rec. 1954 (...) Ritchie herself is excellent. Where Evans has to slow down for some of her divisions Ritchie surmounts them well. Even at slow tempi her legato is uncompromised; in the middle of her voice she is dead true; higher up there can be problems. In Act I’s Dite pace e fulminate we find that she has to spit out the topmost notes thus losing definition and support. But when she joins Deller in their great duet Per le porte (Act II) she shows that, despite the sedate tempo, her legato remains uncompromised and she and Deller shape their lines with considerable acumen. High tenor John Kentish was given a really tough sing as Argone, a role written for an alto castrato. From his opening Di mio padre al fuor, which launches the first Act, we can hear the strain. The young Helen Watts makes an impressive showing in the small role of Melo and her long Act II aria So ch’il Ciel is a harbinger of the great things to come. Ian Wallace makes a notable, nobly rounded Altomaro – he doesn’t have quite the downward extension ideally necessary but he lacks for little in characterisation. He’s at his best in Act I’s Fra l’ombre e gli and Act II’s Sento il cor where there’s just a slight reminiscence of the older, lighter-voiced Australian baritone Harold Williams. As for Deller his is a subtle piece of coloration. His legato, colour and line shaping in Sì, sì minaccia is typical of his invention and the way he projects Alle sfere della Gloria is similarly inspired. The vigorous animation he injects into Act III’s M’opporro da generoso is laced with a big rallentando of outsize generosity. The original 1954 Decca recording had a number of problems and since none of the reissues have had access to the masters there’s little that can be done in this instance to attempt to mitigate them. There are a few very rough edits – a really bad one is in Act II’s Vado, vado al campo (CD 2 track 5). So all in all this is one for the specialist – in Deller, and in historic operatic performances generally. https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jun06/Handel_Sosarme_ANDRCD5053.htm