Nicola Porpora - Orlando - Otero, Real Compania Opera de Camara

 

Release Date: February 14, 2006 Label: K617 Records Number of discs: 2 Composer: Nicola Porpora  Performer: Otero, Real Compania Opera de Camara cd info/ buy

Review:

It seems like the treasure-trove of Baroque opera will never end. Nicola Porpora was an almost exact contemporary of Handel, and a worthy rival from the evidence of this recording. This is a very satisfying performance of a wonderful opera. The quality of the writing is very high; none of this would be out of place in any opera by Handel. The recitatives are if anything more dramatic and striking than Handel's, the accompanied recitatives full of invention, and the arias full of beauty. There is perhaps a lack of vocal pyrotechnics in the fast arias, but the lyrical ones verge on the sublime. The one duet is particularly striking. The orchestral writing in the overture and sinfonias is very powerful, with a contrapuntal richness that Handel rarely attempted in his opera overtures. All in all, a very fine recording by an unjustly neglected master. One interesting fact about Porpora: he outlived Handel by almost 10 years, and ended up in Vienna as a music teacher, where one of his star pupils was... Joseph Haydn!

 

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Handel - Arias for Senesino - Andreas Scholl

 

Release Date: October 11, 2005 Label: Decca Number of discs: 1 Composer: Handel, Albinoni, Lotti,  Scarlatti, Porpora Performer: Andreas Scholl cd info/ buy

Review:

Senesino, the voice that inspired Handel's greatest operas showpiece arias by Handel, Lotti, Albinoni, Porpora and Scarlatti. One of the truly outstanding voices of today, star countertenor Andreas Scholl celebrates one of the 18th Century's greatest vocal superstars - the remarkable male alto known as Senesino. Senesino's place in history was secured by his extraordinary association with Handel, who after travelling to Dresden to hear him, brought him to London to join his Italian Opera Company - Where he was greatly celebrated by the public, and much admired by the ladies. Inspired by this unique singer, Handel wrote for him a dazzling succession of operatic roles which showcased the beauty and power of his extraordinary vocal personality. Scholl's exquisite voice, beloved of critics and audiences, pure, penetrating, virtuosic and deeply characterful, is a remarkable match for the voice of Senesino.--Amazon

 

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