Christian Curnyn, Early Opera Company - Handel: Partenope (2005)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 933 Mb | Total time: 77:57+55:49+56:29 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Chaconne | CHAN 0719 | Recorded: 2004
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 933 Mb | Total time: 77:57+55:49+56:29 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Chaconne | CHAN 0719 | Recorded: 2004
Partenope is mature Handel, and belongs in the top flight of his stage works. A comedy from 1730, which was first rejected as too frivolous by the Royal Academy of Music in London, the text had been set 20 years earlier by Caldara for an opera that had been a major influence on the young Handel. The tone is light and the action - all disguises and cross-dressing, with everyone ending up with the right partner - is swift moving; there are relatively few extended arias but a number of ensembles, as well as the obligatory sinfonia and march for the battle scene at the beginning of the second act. This performance under Christian Curnyn hits the right spot from the very start.