Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Wrong sort of bel canto, 19 Mar 2009
I would like to say, first of all, that I greatly admire Rolando Villazón's work and style of singing and I think, like so many others do, that he has one of the finest tenor voices around today.
That being as it may, his is simply not a voice, and especially not a style, well suited for this type of music; Villazón's romantic lyricism and vibrant timbre, perfect for the Italian bel canto and later operatic repertoire, sounds oddly anachronistic and ever so slightly warbly in this context. His interpretation of these Handel arias lacks crispness, imagination and trill, and the selection seems strange, to say the least, including several arias written in the alto range. There is a good reason why the transposition of castrato parts, though a long established practice, is becoming more infrequent; Handel may have been something of a pragmatist, but that is hardly an argument for an artist of Villazón's caliber to sing transpositions while ignoring some of Handel's most beautiful tenor arias.
If you are a fan of Villazón but not too concerned about Baroque music you might enjoy this album as an interesting variation from his usual repertoire, but if you are a dedicated Handel or Baroque enthusiast you will certainly not. And if, like me, you really like both Handel and Villazón, you may be surprised by the disagreeability of the combination.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A step too far, 31 Mar 2009
If you like Villazon and you like Handel opera, that is still not a good reason to buy this CD. The voice which works so well in 19th Century Italian opera does not transfer well to Handel. It lacks the clarity and precision needed for his 18th century works. A case of the marketing folk at Deutsch Grammophon trying to extend the Villazon brand too far.
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10 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
One more Handel cd, 4 Mar 2009
First of all I would like to make clear from the begining that the point of my review is not to criticize Rolando Villazon's talent and voice as a performer and musical instrument.Because human voice is a musical instrument.But...
Is anybody out there who realy believes that all we need is one more cd with Handel opera arias especialy from the super star tenor Rolando Villazon?What about so many singers talented Baroque Opera performers like Gilles Ragon,Carlo Vincenzo Allemano,Laurent Naouri,Paul Agnew,Jerome Correas,Janet Williams,Ewa Malas Godlewska,Isabelle Poulenard,Anne-Lise Sollied,Iris Vermillion and many others who have spent their lifes performing Baroque vocal music and never been given the opportunity to record their personal cds with Baroque arias.Yes,of course they don't belong to a big recording label like Decca,Deutsche Gramophone or Virgin Classics where the rest composers from the Baroque period are not as prominent as Handel.Fortunately some of them like Mark Padmore,Sandrine Piau,Veronica Cangemi(an amazing soprano who recently recorded her debut portrait cd)and the late Lorraine Hunt Liberson made excellent recordings that clear up what Baroque vocal music is stood for.Recently Rolando Villazon began to perform and record Baroque music with Emmanuelle Haim but I am not quite sure if this was Haim's choice or Virgin's claim.The fact is that the lyric tenor of the Romantic type was unknown to Baroque opera.The baritone-tenor and the bass were only used in roles such as the rival of the lover(who usaly was a castrato or a female singer in travesti,in character parts,and at some periods in buffo parts.If you are a Villazon's fun you probably be delighted but if you are a Baroque vocal music lover who likes historically based performances I do not recomend this cd.If you want to find out the truth about the Baroque vocal music(the real Bel Canto),Rodolfo Celletti's book 'A history of Bel Canto' is available in amazon.
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