Handel / Nesi / Atenea Archetypon Super-Audio CD

Powerful female characters and a woman's powerful voice: MDG listeners are familiar with Mary-Ellen Nesi from several outstanding Handel recordings. In her most recent recital the acclaimed mezzo-soprano turns to dramatic roles from Baroque and classical operas. The selection on this release is compelling: supported by the musicians of Armonia Atenea under the conductor George Petrou, Nesi lends complex female characters a deep intensity of irresistible audience appeal from the first note straight through to the very end. And these characters really do have to be filled with life. From Medea to Aristea, from Alcestis to Galatea, and from Andromeda to Eurydice: the ancient material has been set many times, and the interpretations of these personalities, often complicated ones, are no less diverse. Hasse's Eurydice endows the enchanting nymph with a self-confidence that was once completely foreign to Gluck and Monteverdi. And then Medea: the mother who murdered her children doubtless numbers among the most fascinating figures from ancient mythology. While Handel, bowing to convention, eliminated the bloodthirsty episode, two generations later Cherubini depicted the whole Medea, in a role with absolutely superhuman difficulties. The work was too extreme even for his contemporaries. It was not until 2013 that researchers roused the sleeping beauty "Du trouble affreux" after more than two hundred years of slumber.

1. Andrea Stefano Fior?: Pirro ½Un Cor Pi? Misero? 2. Luigi Cherubini: Med?e ½Du Trouble Affreux? 3. Johann Adolf Hasse: Orfeo ½Fasto Altero Vero Amore? 4. George Frideric Handel: Teseo ½Ombre, Sortite ? Sibilando? 5. Nicola Porpora: Deianira, Iole Ed Ercole ½Se Morrai Per Me Chi Resta?? 6. Nicola Porpora: Andromeda Liberata ½Lo So Barbari Fati? 7. Giovanni Paisiello: L?Olimpiade ½Caro, Son Tua Cosi? 8. George Frideric Handel: Hercules ½Cease, Ruler of the Day, to Rise? 9. Johann Adolf Hasse: Issipile ½Impallidisce in Campo? 10. Christoph Willibald Gluck: Alceste ½Non VI Turbate, No? 11. Johann Adolf Hasse: Irene ½S?, Di Ferri Mi Cingete? 12. George Frideric Handel: Admeto ½Spera, Si, Mio Caro Bene? 13. Nicola Antonio Porpora: Polifemo ½S?, Che Son Quella, S??