On the Nature of Things | Forum

Hans Bulvai wrote:v-rDRa-5h4s

Nonc Hilaire wrote:

Hans Bulvai wrote:v-rDRa-5h4s

Who is the clean shaven guy? He is a welcome contrast to the emotional eunuch, Bocelli.

Typhoon wrote:For Hans:

-B8-mHXnlxg

Hans Bulvai wrote:

Typhoon wrote:For Hans:

-B8-mHXnlxg

Very good!

. . .

The historical Alexander the Great had no guns nor explosives; warfare on his campaigns would have been easy on the ears by Hollywood standards. Such audible restraint had no appeal for Handel or his London audience, so the overture and the several symphony-interludes in this rousing opera from 1726 are replete with percussion and military themes. The scene of the story is near the outer limit of Alessandro's conquests, with India already subdued. Alessandro has begun to suffer delusions, imagining himself to be the Son of Jove. The libretto is based, indeed, on a story titled La Superbia d'Alessandro, The Megalomania of Alexander.

But Alessandro is not the focus of dramatic attention in this opera named for him, although his role was composed for the celebrated castrato alto Senesino and thus inevitably includes a series of spectacular virtuosic arias. The real drama is the rivalry of two women, one a slave and the other a barbarian, for the love of Al. Handel had somehow managed to finagle two of the finest divas of the era, Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni, to sing the roles of Rossane and Lisaura. Their real-life bitter rivalry insured that the onstage tension would be high, a situation that required Handel to balance the roles with exquisite tact. Each aspirant gets two arias in all three acts of the opera, and their arias are the lengthiest and most flamboyant. Lisaura's are the darker and more furious while Rossane's are sweeter and more bird-like, preparing our ears for her eventual "victory" as Alex's chosen amour. Lisaura is rewarded, however, with the devotion of Tassile, Al's most loyal supporter and the heir to the Indian portion of the Alexandrine empire. Lisaura and Rossane share a duet at the end of Act I, while several of the extended accompanied recitativos are also their duets. The final scene of the opera allots each soprano a brief duet with Alessandro, followed by a trio with chorus.

Alessandro is sung by male alto Max Emanuel Cencic, whose acclaim on the modern opera stage is beginning to approach that of the original Senesino himself. Cencic is superb but, as the opera requires, he's upstaged by the rival sopranos, Karina Gauvin as Lisaura and Julia Lezhneva as Rossane. It would surprise me if a touch of rivalry really didn't inspire the two singers to the brilliance of this performance, Gauvin the established HIPPstar and Lezhneva the early-twenties newcomer. Gauvin is gorgeous of timbre and affect, but Lezhneva excels in agility and purity of technique.