Alan Curtis, Il Complesso Barocco - George Frideric Handel: Rodrigo (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 787 Mb | Total time: 79:15+75:34 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Virgin Veritas | 5 45897 2 | Recorded: 1997
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 787 Mb | Total time: 79:15+75:34 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Virgin Veritas | 5 45897 2 | Recorded: 1997
Until recently, so much of this first opera that Handel wrote for Italy was lost that it was unviable to stage it. The rediscovery of the missing material, a triumph of scholarly detective work, reveals the confident high spirits which characterise so much of Handel’s music during his Italian visit. It lacks the instrumental colours of his more lavish London productions, with many arias supported by continuo alone. All are here, complete (even six which Handel himself discarded), but many are brief and, under Curtis’s lively direction, the dramatic tension builds up splendidly.