Handel Rinaldo

Hugh Canning, wrote in the Sunday Times, 19 November 2000:

Not since Decca’s Alcina starring Sutherland and Berganza almost 40 years ago has a Handel opera been given such lavish treatment on disc as this Rinaldo. The first voice we hear is that of Bernarda Fink in the secondary role of Goffredo; nothing on this set is more beautiful than her singing of his Act III aria, ‘Sorge nel petto’. But even the smallest parts have been cast with exceptional care; artists of the calibre of Mark Padmore, Catherine Bott and the remarkable young Indo-American countertenor, Bejun Mehta, make cameo appearances. Rinaldo was Handel’s first opera for the London stage. He cobbled it together form pre-existing material and it has often been criticised as a dramatically incoherent ‘pasticcio’ (literally pastry). But, given a cast such as Decca has assembled, it emerges as a work of genius. The countertenor David Daniels is glorious in both the pathetic and heroic arias Handel wrote for the star castrato Nicolini: he sings the sublime lament ‘Cara sposa’ with rapt intensity, the martial ‘Or la tromba’ with effortless bravura. Luba Orgonasova is brilliantly vindictive as the sorceress Armida; as Argante, Gerald Finley gives abject lessons in Handel bass singing. Cecilia Bartoli’s is perhaps more controversial: a darkish voice for Rinaldo’s beloved - but she lightens it exquisitely for the teasing ‘Bel piacere’, and her richly expressive singing of the opera’s hit aria, ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’, is the work of one of the most imaginative and word-sensitive singers before the public today. Christopher Hogwood conducting is stylish, the playing of The AAM crisp. A triumph.