| Label: PANCLASSICS Catalog: PC10273 Format: CD Michael Form, Deutsche Händel Solisten/+Georg Friedrich Händel Alessandro Live recording from Händel-Festspiele Karlsruhe, February 2012 The present live recording, from the 2012 Handel Festival in Karlsruhe, is only the second ever complete performance of Handel's Alessandro since the recording by Sigiswald Kuijken and La Petite Bande in the mid-1980s. The part of Alexander the Great, in the first performance on 5 May 1726 at the King's Theatre, was a signature role for the star castrato Senesino, Handel's greatest crowd puller in London. He had to sing eight arias and highly virtuoso coloratura! In addition, Handel had at his disposal Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, the two greatest opera divas of the day, for whom he had to provide suitable arias. No wonder that Alessandro is not often seen on stage. Since the Baroque era the opera has only ever been staged four times (and then mostly shortened), the fi rst time in 1959 at the Semperoper, Dresden. The Karlsruhe production at the 2102 Handel Festival represents, in this sense, a pioneering occasion. Outstanding, with Lawrence Zazzo in the title role, Yetzabel Arias Fernández, Raffaella Milanesi and Martin Oro, the opera was the highlight of the Handel Festival, which was cheered equally by both the audience and the critics. Price: $57.98 |