BaL 20.09.14 - Handel: Orlando

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30am Building a Library.


Anna Picard surveys recordings of Handel's opera Orlando and makes a personal recommendation. Written in 1733 , it is now regarded as one of Handel's masterpieces. Orlando falls in love with Angelica, who is in turn in love with another, and so Orlando is driven to madness, but eventually restored to sanity by the magician Zoroastro.

Available recordings:-

Bardon, Joshua, Summers, Mannion, van der Kamp, William Christie

Mijanovic, Jankova, Peetz, Claark, Wolff, Zurich Opera, William Christie (DVD/Blu-ray)

Bowman, Auger, Robbin, Kirkby, Thomas, AAM, Christopher Hogwood

Mehta, Karthauser, Hammarstrom, Im, Wolff, B'Rock Orchestra, Rene Jacobs

Willetts, Garvin, McHardy, Forsythe, Berg, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Alexander Welmann

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Orlando falls in love with Angelica, who is in turn in love with another, and so Orlando is driven to madness, but eventually restored to sanity by the magician Zoroastro.

I hate these verissmo plots!

[doversoul1]

Welcome back BaL. What a splendid start of the new season!!

Mehta, Karthauser, Hammarstrom, Im, Wolff, B'Rock Orchestra, Rene Jacobs
The staged production of this is available on youtube. I watched it but I think I am not visually literate enough to make much sense*.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOIiqX-rC5o

I bought Hogwood’s CD but much to my disappointment, there was no libretto.

*I Wonder if this is a verissmo-ising attempt?

[aeolium]

There is also a set from Jean-Claude Malgoire and the orchestra of La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy, with Christophe Dumaux in the title role. And, though now nearly 30 years old, a live performance from the Teatro La Fenice with Charles Mackerras conducting and Marilyn Horne as Orlando. The latter may well not interest purists though I think Horne is a great Handelian and Mackerras is never to be discounted even in his earlier Handel recordings. I hope we do at least hear some examples from these sets.

[Roslynmuse]

There's an even older live one - 1963 - ECO/Arnold Goldsborough with Baker, Cantelo, Harper, Pamela Bowden, Stanislav Pieczora. Available - at a price - on Ponto (Mitridate).

[verismissimo]

There's an even older live one - 1963 - ECO/Arnold Goldsborough with Baker, Cantelo, Harper, Pamela Bowden, Stanislav Pieczora. Available - at a price - on Ponto (Mitridate).

I've got that one and will give it another spin.

But my strongest memory of this work is of Begun Mehta as a stunning Orlando at Covent Garden a few years ago. Was that with OAE and Mackerras? I think so.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I bought Hogwood’s CD but much to my disappointment, there was no libretto.

There are two different packagings for this version. I wonder whether one of them might contain the libretto?

[amateur51]

Welcome back BaL. What a splendid start of the new season!!

Yes indeed, zero expenditure AND a long lie-in

[doversoul1]

There are two different packagings for this version. I wonder whether one of them might contain the libretto?

Mine is this

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Australian%2BEloquence/ELQ4808813

It came out fairly recently with very attractive price of £10.75, and I did not seriously expected to see the libretto but I still hoped I just might.

Whereas this, which I am sure has all the notes and the libretto, was £39.75

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Decca/4308452

but now it is reduced to 25.83!!!

[pastoralguy]

Yes indeed, zero expenditure AND a long lie-in

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Mine is this

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Australian%2BEloquence/ELQ4808813

It came out fairly recently with very attractive price of £10.75, and I did not seriously expected to see the libretto but I still hoped I just might.

Whereas this, which I am sure has all the notes and the libretto, was £39.75

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Decca/4308452

but now it is reduced to 25.83!!!

That is indeed an unreasonable price difference.

[Flosshilde]

Yes indeed, zero expenditure AND a long lie-in

Phyllis Stein

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes indeed, zero expenditure AND a long lie-in

Boo! Hiss!

[amateur51]

Boo! Hiss!

Depending on who's driving it, it'll be at least half of the prog. taken up with editions, pitch, Cali'll wade in with a bit about wobbly sopranos, whether it should be sung in German or English or Welsh, the music will scarecly get a look in. Molto tedioso

As someone else has written recently elsewhere, political incorrectness gone mad

[visualnickmos]

Much as I am certain of Handel's genius, for me at least his operas (from the little snippets I've ever heard) don't exactly say "wow - got to get this"

Turgid comes to mind!