Handel Serse Emily D’Angelo, Lucy Crowe, Paula Murrihy, Mary Bevan, Neal Davies; The English Concert/Harry Bicket Linn Records CKD709 172:38 mins (3 discs)
With his ravishing, hilarious and profound recording of Serse, conductor Harry Bicket once again puts all rivals in the shade. Handel re-invented pastiche in this genre-busting 1738 work, heightening satire with virtuosity and spinning ‘borrowed’ melodies – mostly from the 1694 Il Xerse by his early career rival Giovanni Bononcini – to show off his own dazzling invention.
As Romilda, soprano Lucy Crowe is a prodigy both technical – can any singer match her improbable dance in the vocal stratosphere? – and dramatic. Buffeted by the unwanted desire of the tyrant Serse and the jealousy of his sister Atalanta, who desires Romilda’s lover Arsamene, Crowe’s Romilda runs the affective gamut between tragedy and silliness. As Serse, mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo’s force-of-nature vocalism is tempered with fine acting; we hear Serse’s violence not just when it boils over, but even simmering under the serene ‘Ombra mai fu’. Soprano Mary Bevan brings a magnificent sweep to Atalanta, from the honeyed tone of her amorous numbers to the edgy bitterness of her final aria. The other soloists are all outstanding, getting this opera’s mix of comedy and seriousness just right, as when mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy tinges Arsamene’s complaints with self-pity, or the baritone William Dazelev reveals vulnerability behind the klutziness of the manservant Elviro. The suave assurance of Bicket and the English Concert is expressed in gracious tempos, translucent textures and poetic continuo realisations, which also send up the emotional incontinence of the characters on stage. In all, a riveting performance.
Berta Joncus
