HANDEL: Rinaldo.(Review)

HANDEL: Rinaldo

[] Bartoli, Orgonasova; Fink; Daniels, B. Mehta, Taylor, Finley; Academy of Ancient Music, Hogwood. Text and translations. Decca 289 467 087-2

George Frideric Handel first won the attention of the London public in 1711, with the premiere of Rinaldo, an adaptation of Torquato Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata, at the Queen's Theatre. Across the centuries, it's easy to understand why. The twenty-six-year old composer combined an already masterful technique with a rich, invigorating musical imagination. Rinaldo is a young composer's opera, more dazzling than moving, with characters who are attractive but less convincing than those of later Handel creations. Christopher Hogwood and the performers on this new Decca Rinaldo realize the opera by emphasizing its successes and not lingering over its shortcomings.

When a character does pause to ruminate or declaim, Hogwood encourages the singer to lavish time and feeling on the moment. At its best -- as in the opera's most famous arias, Almirena's "Lascia ch'io pianga" and Rinaldo's "Cara sposa" -- Rinaldo reveals Handel's unmistakable ardor, an ardor as commanding as Wagner's or Verdi's. Hogwood also allows Rinaldo's kitschier moments to work their charm, as when the hero is accosted by sirens and an evil spirit in Act II. As in his finest Handel recordings -- an exquisite Messiah and the Athalia with Joan Sutherland (both on L'Oiseau Lyre) -- Hog-wood forsakes his sometimes rigid musical approach to communicate the sensuous and aesthetic magic of Handel. The conductor even unbends enough to dub in actual birdsong during Almirena's Act I "Augelletti che cantate," in a charming bow to opera history. (Real sparrows were let loose during this aria at Rinaldo's premiere, causing much amazement; Joseph Addison and Richard Steele's tart "reviews" of those winged debutants are included in the CD booklet's notes.) There are still moments when this music could sound more startling, with less emphasis on precision; but on the whole Hogwood's is a stirring account of the opera, one that Baroque opera novices should find particularly enticing.

The first Rinaldo cast was a gallery of virtuosos: castrato stars Nicolo Grimaldi (Rinaldo) and Valentino Urbani (Eustazio), bass Giuseppe Boschi (Argante) and prima donnas Elisabetta Pilotti-Schiavonetti (Armida), Isabella Girardeau (Almirena) and Francesca Vanini-Boschi (Goffredo). Handel demands ...