96 RECORDINGS amount of unused space that could have been filled with alternate versions of songs or whole sections that have never been heard—for instance a completely different final scene and a handful of arias and duets. (This blank space is even more aggravating with the CD format.) It would also have been helpful to reprint the complete libretto in the accompanying booklet. Candide, the opera, is not quite the best of all possible operas, nor is this new record the best of all possible operatic recordings. Hopefully there is the time and the interest to produce definitive versions of both. Until dien, this is a welcome addition to the catalogue. Christopher J. Thomas Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/4/96/1483142 by guest on 25 September 2021
NOTES i. Tyrone Guthrie, A Life in the Theater (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959), p. 241.
Two Approaches to Handel Samson. George Frideric Handel
Dalila: Janet Baker Philistine Man: Philip Langridge Micah: Helen Watts Israelite Man: Alexander Oliver Samson: Robert Tear English Chamber Orchestra Manoa: John Shirley-Quirk London Voices Harapha: Benjamin Luxon Raymond Leppard, conductor Philistine Woman: NormaBurrowes Erato STU 71240 (4 discs) Messenger/Israelite Woman: Felicity Lett Esther. George Frideric Handel
Esther: Patrizia Kwella Priest: Drew Minter Ahasuerus: Anthony Rolfe Johnson Orchestra and Chorus of the Academy of Mordecai: Ian Partridge Ancient Music Haman: David Thomas Westminster Cathedral Boys' Choir Israelite Woman: Emma Kirkby Christopher Hqgwood, conductor First Israelite: Paul Elliott VOiseau-Lyre 414 423-1 (digital) (2 discs) Second IsraelitelHabdonahlOfficer: Andrew King
These two releases vividly document the two most prevalent approaches to performing Handel's vocal works today. On the one hand (in a 1978 recording previously released in diis country by the Musical Heritage Society), we have Raymond Leppard, the champion of the middle-of-the-road approach, using modern instruments played with a knowledge of but not strict adherence to what we believe to be eighteenth-century technique, and large, big-name voices singing with operatic vigor. On the other hand is Christopher Hog- RECORDINGS 97 wood, one of several high priests of the current rage for performances "on au- thentic instruments," leading his acclaimed Academy of Ancient Music and a team of lighter-voiced soloists whose reputations are based primarily on per- formances such as this one. The contrast is heightened by the repertoire under review: Leppard leads Samson, the oratorio Handel began immediately after Messiah in 1741, when he had already written his last Italian opera. Hogwood gives us Esther, regarded as the first English oratorio, composed before the first Royal Academy was founded. To call this Esther the first English oratorio, however, is somewhat mislead-
ing. The work recorded here is a piece Handel composed around 1718 for James Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/4/96/1483142 by guest on 25 September 2021 Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon and later Duke of Chandos (for whom Handel also composed the Chandos Anthems and Ads and Galatea). The Esther Handel eventually unveiled to the London public in 1732 was a greatly expanded piece with some newly composed material and numerous sections taken from earlier compositions, among them the Ode for Queen Anne's Birthday, La Resur- rezione, and the Coronation Anthems. The cast in 1732 comprised the opera singers (including the renowned alto castrato Senesino) Handel had been pre- senting that same season in Tamerlano, Admeto, Gitdio Cesare, and Sosarme. The 1732 version was so extensive a revision that Friedrich Chrysander pub- lished the original Esther under the title used in one manuscript copy, Haman and Mordecai. Why Handel felt compelled to alter Esther so radically has never been adequately explained, and the later version is generally dismissed by modern commentators as a careless pastiche. The earlier version is not given very high marks for dramatic structure, either. It does not stand up to a com- parison to Acts and Galatea, composed around the same time, yet it is mature Handel, which is to say that it contains many glorious moments for the hu- man voice. Most of the arias are da capo (Hogwood is mercifully sane in his treatment of ornamentation in the repeats), and the choral contribution is rela- tively slight; one can see why Handel decided to beef up the choral element when he revised the work in 1732. All in all, Hogwood avoids most of the excesses that keep a larger segment of today's listening audience from hopping on the bandwagon of authenticity. The overture, for me, is marred by the nervous articulation, wiry tone, and "lozenge dynamics"—quick little crescendos and decrescendos on every note held for any length of time—that are even more pronounced (and more irritat- ing) in the work of other "authentic instrument" conductors. One might ex- cuse this as the inevitable result of using old instruments, but a survey of re- cordings from ten or fifteen years ago, also using "authentic instruments," reveals that those same instruments are capable of sounding much richer and more substantial than tfiey tend to nowadays. Perhaps we are becoming more knowledgeable about early performance techniques, but I fear that in modern music scholarship, the scholarship too often outstrips the music. Certainly the overall effect of supposedly authentic music making cannot be 98 RECORDINGS what it was in Handel's day. Contemporary accounts describe Handel's or- chestra as loud, even noisy. A performance that sounds thin and wispy, no matter how scrupulously "authentic," will never create for modern listeners the impact Handel's works had on his audiences. Granted, many of us are still adjusting to eighteenth-century sounds. It is hard to believe now that fifty years ago the sound of a harpsichord was judged woefully feeble by listeners accustomed only to modern pianos. Maybe someday more of us will be able to savor the brittle clarity of such performances, without an overriding feeling that one is looking through the wrong end of a musical telescope. Hogwood's soloists are all competent if not distinctive. Best to my ears is the beautifully phrased Ahasuerus of Anthony Rolfe Johnson; most bother- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/4/96/1483142 by guest on 25 September 2021 some is the Esther of Patrizia Kwella, who exhibits the white, almost vibratoless tone favored by authenticity buffs today. I for one am not convinced that sing- ers in Handel's day worked to eliminate the vibrato that comes naturally to most singing voices. Charles Burney, for instance, records that Francesca Cuzzoni—one of Handel's most celebrated sopranos—possessed "a native warble" that "enabled her to execute divisions with such facility as to conceal every appearance of difficulty."1 Quite clearly, Handel did not expect his fe- male soloists to sound like boy sopranos. Leppard's battery of soloists for Samson shows far less restraint and far more individuality, vocal sheen, and plushness, with a couple of unfortunate excep- tions. Robert Tear, in the tide role, is a tenor whose work in the baroque rep- ertoire I have highly admired in previous recordings, particularly of Bach. Here, however, he sounds a bit worn and constricted, and at times, presum- ably for dramatic effect, he resorts to exaggerated emphasis that distorts the vocal line. Janet Baker seems an unusual choice for the soprano role of Dalila. She is an unyieldingly intelligent singer with impeccable musicianship. What she lacks is an innately gorgeous sound, which would seem a prerequisite for a character who seduced and conquered the strongest man in the world. Her rendition of "With plaintive notes" makes the music sound difficult, not ravishing. Perhaps no one will ever again toss off that number with the ease and voluptuousness Joan Sutherland brought to it in her Age of Bel Canto collection, but Dame Janet simply does not sound comfortable. She has also been assigned the first- act arias intended for one of the Philistine Women, eliminating a solo voice and making Dalila some sort of Philistine spokesperson, a function she did not fill in Handel's original scheme. Helen Watts must surely rank as one of the finest Handel singers of all time, although the sober nature of her role as Micah does not require the versatility and flexibility she can draw upon in a role such as Juno in Semele, in which she has no rivals. The English Chamber Orchestra is the splendid ensemble we expect it to be, but the London Voices chorus sounds rather bland and homogenized. Here is one place where the sharp bite of Hogwood's all-male chorus would have been RECORDINGS 99 welcome. Leppard's tempos are sensible; yet the result is a noble, stately, beau- tiful, and, too often, dull example of Handel's art. The work itself does not overflow with drama and action, as recent attempts to stage it have demon- strated, nor with Italianate vocal virtuosity. It is a testament to the accessibility of Handel's operas that today, unlike in the not-so-distant past, one is able to develop an appreciation of Handel primarily through his operatic achieve- ments, and to miss the elements that got lost in the transition to oratorio. The sound of both recordings is excellent, L'Oiseau-Lyre's being drier, Erato's more reverberant. Both conductors employ the "foreshortened" ca- dence in recitatives, Leppard less consistently, and neither sustains all of the continuo chords in the old-fashioned manner. It says something about our age Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/4/96/1483142 by guest on 25 September 2021 that none of the singers in either cast seems to possess a true trill, once the sine qua non of any aspiring singer. Record surfaces were uniformly quiet, with the exception of a defective fourth side of my review copy of Esther. As far as rec- ommending acquisition of either recording, I would say that both belong in the library of dedicated Handelians; neither would make the best introduction to Handel for those who are not yet familiar with one'of the supreme vocal composers of all time. JohnSchauer
NOTES 1. Charles Burney, A General History of Music: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1789), rcpr. ed. (New York: Dover Publications, 1957), 2:736.
Dejanice. Alfredo Catalani
Dardano: Rene" Massis Live performance, 6 September 198s Argelia: Maria Luisa Garbato Jan Latham-Kocnig, conductor Dejanice: Carla Basto Bongiovanni (distributed by Qualiton Imports, Admeto: Ottavio Garaventa Ltd.) Labdaco: Carlo Zardo GB 2031/32/33 (digital) (3 discs) Orchestra Lirico-Sinjbnica and Chorus ofTeatro del Giglio, Lucca
It is startling that, of the Italian operas written during the four decades from Donizetti's death (1848) to the premiere of Cavalleria rusticana (1890), Verdi's remain almost alone in the current repertory. Of others, only La Gioconda and Mefistofele receive much international attention. In light of this, Verdi's interest in andToscanini's long crusade for Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893) are more cred- ible than his operas themselves suggest.1 Toscanini's support is legendary. In 1886, at the age of nineteen, he made his Italian conducting debut with Cata- lani's Edmea. He became the composer's devoted friend and later led produc-