Carlo Vistoli reviews
Handel: Semele (Gardiner)
Louise Alder (soprano), et al; English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner (SDG)
Jommelli: Requiem
Sandrine Piau (soprano), et al; Ghislieri Chorus and Orchestra/Giulio Prandi (Arcana)
Handel: Agrippina
Joyce DiDonato, Franco Fagioli, Elsa Benoit, Luca Pisaroni, Jakub Józef Orlinski, Andrea Mastroni, Carlo Vistoli, Biagio Pizzuti, Marie-Nicole Lemieux; Il P'omo d'Oro/Maxim Emelyanychev (Erato)
Joyce DiDonato's heart-breaking performance of Handel's Agrippina
‘Maxim Emelyanychev hits the sweet spot in his tempos, dynamics and realisations, the score aiming to mirror Handel’s lost original'
Paul Agnew directs Monteverdi's L’Orfeo
British tenor Paul Agnew tackles an operatic triathlon here, as soloist (in the roles of Eco and Apollo), and as both musical and stage director of this new production of L’Orfeo filmed at the Théâtre de Caen. His mise en scène paints a series of pastoral tableaux with apt simplicity – a welcome change from the anachronisms directors often impose on early opera (though the singers’ actions would have benefitted from a little more direction).