Product Details

• Published on: 2001-08-14
• Released on: 2001-08-14
• Running time: 0 seconds

Customer Reviews

The Music is Enough...
... without staging and without laboring through the stuffy libretto in Italian or English, to make Handel's Arminio a balmy entertainment. Most of the flashiest arias, the showiest instrumental passages, the touchingest affectations come in the second and third acts, on CD 2, so be sure you hold judgment on the performance until then, when you've had a chance to hear the unusual duet/trio/quartet recitativos, even including some passages sung by overlapping voices, and the defiant, heroic arias of Arminio and Sigismundo.

Any skepticism I've expressed in other reviews about Vivica Genoux can be dismissed in light of her splendid singing as Arminio, a role which allows her to exploit her lower mezzo timbre to beautiful effect as well as to show off her 'concitato' (frenzied) athleticism. The two higher sopranos, Geraldine McGreevy and Dominique Labelle, achieve dramatic intensity without sacrificing beauty of timbre or accuracy of tuning, evidence I think of the inspiring standards that conductor Alan Curtis always demands of his performers. Basso Riccardo Ristori might seem a little impassive dramatically, in his role as the heavy, but his musical profundo more than compensates. How often do you hear a basso sing sixteenth-note arpeggios with tonal clarity and precision? Italian tenor Luigi Petroni, singing the role of the Roman general Varo, has more technique than natural voice, and I suppose the same is true of countertenor Sytse Buwalda as a Roman captain, but both singers are fully enjoyable to hear.

The opera seria Arminio was first sung in London in 1737. This recording was made in 2001, using a score prepared by Alan Curtis himself. The instrumental parts, fortified by Curtis to suit his polished ensemble Il Complesso Barocco, are robust and stirring, with brilliant moments for the oboes, horns, and theorbos.

This 2-CD recording is.... are you ready for the good news?... included in the box of six Handel operas recently released by Virgin Classics at a rock-bottom price. The other five operas are Rodrigo, Radamisto, Admeto, Fernando, and Deidamia, all recorded by Il Complesso Barocco between 1978 and 2007. Each opera has a different cast of singers, but all six are superlative.

Very Worthwhile Despite Weaknesses
George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759): Arminio. Opera in 3 Acts with a libretto by Antonio Salvi. Cast: Vivica Genaux, mezzosoprano (Arminio); Geraldine McGreevy, soprano (Tusnelda); Dominique Labelle, soprano (Sigismondo); Manuela Custer, mezzosoprano (Ramise); Luigi Petroni, tenor (Varo); Sytse Buwalda, countertenor (Tullio); Riccardo Ristori, bass (Segeste); Il Complesso Barocco, dir. Alan Curtis. Recorded at the Teatro dei Rozzi in Siena, Italy, in July 2000, and released in 2001 by Virgin Classics (EMI) as 7243 5 45461 2 9. Total playing time: 146'26".

"Arminio" must be considered as one of Handel's minor operatic works, even though it contains some very attractive, but generally rather conventional music. It was staged by Handel himself towards the end of his career as impresario (1737) and only had six performances, its reception being so bad that it was never staged again until the 20th century. The main problem, of course, is not the music but the libretto, the Italian original (based on Tacitus) having been shortened almost to the point of unintelligibity for the London stage (Handel's English audiences had a notorious dislike of Italian recitative). All this is the subject of Alan Curtis's introductory essay in the documentation, which is here pleasingly complemented by a radio talk given by Donna Leon, explaining some of the intricacies of the "plot", such as it is. I found these essays attractive reading, but was a little disappointed to find that the libretto in the booklet was given only in Italian and in the "translation" used by Handel himself in the 18th century, this being, in fact, anything but literal and blowing up the fairly sane Italian text with Georgian poetic bombast. Despite Donna Leon's misgivings about the plot, I found the moral conflicts involved in the various dilemmas facing the characters to be quite challenging. Yes, of course the 18th century had its conventions, but I still prefer a good opera seria with its often cathartic approach to, say, a 19th century Verismo opera or to the decadence of Viennese operetta.

I agree with another reviewer that the instrumental side of this performance is the greatest highlight, with Alan Curtis's conducting proving him once again to be one of the "grand old men" of the revival of Handel's operas. His choice of singers, on the other hand, is a matter of taste. Vivica Genaux, of course, needs no recommendation from the likes of me; since her album of "Arias for Farinelli" she has been a Handelian star, and her performance as Arminio is beyond criticism. Her rich, dark, creamy mezzo combines with a fire in her declamation which lifts her head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. Dominique Labelle as Sigismondo, the indecisive son of Arminio's enemy Segeste (and the equally indecisive lover of Arminio's sister Ramise), has a pleasingly agile soprano voice which grew on me while listening to these CDs. Geraldine McGreevy, Tusnelda, is a singer I had not come across anywhere before, and I felt that her performance was one which improved during the opera - at the beginning she seemed remarkably "cool" (not to say, cold), and even at the end, when she has some beautiful arias, I felt that a little more "fuoco" would have enhanced her performance. Manuela Custer, mezzo, was a satisfying Ramise.

The male voices, on the other hand, were somewhat disappointing. Sytse Buwalda, countertenor, is able to sing Tullio quite plesantly, but he certainly isn't in the Andreas Scholl class, his timbre sounding falsetto-like and reminding me rather of some of the efforts at countertenor in the 80s. Segeste (Riccardo Ristori) remains surprisingly pale for a villain of his calibre, but it is the tenor part of Varo which here really seems to be the Achilles heel of the production. Without wishing to be unkind, I felt on a number of occasions that I wanted, literally, to shake this Italian performer into a bit of temperament; I think the best I can say of him is that he was involved in the production.

All in all, this is, despite the weaknesses, a very worthwhile project which has closed one of the last gaps in the Handel opera discography and provides some excellent insights into the way Handel combined genius with convention in the battle for survival as an impresario.

I am THRILLED with this opera---and with it's cast!
I am so glad to have discovered this opera. What a magnificent cast! Vivica Genaux [Arminio] and Geraldine McGreevy [Tusnelda] are a JOY to behold and hear!