Philippe Jaroussky reviews
Queen of Baroque (Cecilia Bartoli)
Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo-soprano), et al; Il Giardino Armonico/Giovanni Antonini (Decca)
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
Philippe Jaroussky, Amanda Forsythe, Emöke Baráth; Coro della Radiotelevisione svizzera; I Barocchisti/Diego Fasolis (Erato)
Only The Sound Remains by Kaija Saariaho
Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains takes flight from an intriguing premise and a stellar artistic team. The opera draws on two Noh plays, as translated by Ezra Pound and Ernest Fenollosa, while Saariaho is renowned for her scores’ complex and sumptuous sonorities. |
Philippe Jaroussky performs Handel's Arias
Directing his own ensemble Artaserse as well as singing, in his latest disc Philippe Jaroussky concentrates on Handel, and specifically on some of the composer’s lesser known operas. He also makes no bones about the fact that he transposes some of the arias – as Handel himself might well have done with a different singer taking the role; from both a practical and an artistic point of view, that makes perfect sense. There’s certainly plenty to enjoy in this generous selection of extracts.