Handel: Alcina (complete opera)
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GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Alcina (complete opera)
Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski, Magdalena Kožená, Erin Morley, Alois Mühlbacher, Anna Bonitatibus, Elizabeth DeShong, Valerio Contaldo, Alex
[ Pentatone / 3 CD ]
Release Date: Friday 2 February 2024
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Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre return to Handel with a complete recording of his opera Alcina. The title role is interpreted by Magdalena Kožená, who reunites with Les Musiciens and maestro Minkowski after a series of acclaimed baroque recordings. She is joined by an excellent casts of soloists, consisting of Erin Morley (Morgana), Anna Bonitatibus (Ruggiero), Elzabeth DeShong (Bradamante), Alois Mühlbacher (Oberto), Valerio Contaldo (Oronte) and Alex Rosen (Melisso). This studio recording transports the listener to Alcina's enchanted island, and shows Handel at the peak of his power: the score is dramatic, lush and colourful as well as introspective and profound where the story requires it.
Since its foundation in 1982, and under the baton of its founder and musical director Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre have developed into one of the world's best period-instrument ensembles, with a vast discography. The ensemble returns to Pentatone after having presented Mozart's Mass in C Minor in 2020. Alcina is star mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená's fifth album as part of her exclusive collaboration with Pentatone, after having presented the baroque cantatas recital album Il giardino dei sospiri and the songs in chamber-musical setting project Soirée in 2019, as well as Nostalgia together with Yefim Bronfman (2021) and Folk Songs with the Czech Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle (2023). The other soloists all make their Pentatone debut.
"The orchestra plays with fastidious attention to Handel's ever-changing palette, and its support for the singers - particularly with the obbligatos - is unfailingly sensitive. And the singers are top-notch...The moments of greatest beauty belong - as if by right - to Anna Bonitatibus as Ruggiero and Magdalena Kožená in the title role." BBC Music
"This new [recording] scores highly, partly for the dramatic relish with which the conductor Marc Minkowski and his Musiciens du Louvre dispatch the music, but principally for a tour de force performance in the title role from the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená. She keeps the emotional import of the words she sings absolutely front and centre of her delivery, without compromising the shape or sense of the music, and she has fabulous low notes as a bonus.
4 out of 5 stars" The Guardian
"the performances are almost entirely splendid. The first voice to enchant is the high-flying soprano of Erin Morley as Morgana...But the most stunning singing comes from Magdalena Kozena as her volatile, man-hungry sister Alcina...Vocal accomplishments are complemented by the lively ensemble spirit generated by Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre. They decorate Handel's top-notch score with piquant colours and instrumental finesse, and keep the pace moving." The Times
