Alan Curtis, Il Complesso Barocco - Handel: Berenice (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 890 Mb | Total time: 60:29+51:14+54:32 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Virgin Classics | # 50999 628536 2 | Recorded: 2009
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 890 Mb | Total time: 60:29+51:14+54:32 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Virgin Classics | # 50999 628536 2 | Recorded: 2009
Berenice is one of those slightly problematic operas which seem to work better in the theatre where the gender of the characters is (usually) more obvious. Here we have a pair of low voices, one singing a man and one a woman, and a pair of high voices similarly paired. Curtis has chosen a beautifully balanced cast. But it is one where the voices are not highly distinctive so that you sometimes have to concentrate to tell whether Berenice or Alessandro is singing, or Selene or Arsace. If you listen to the opera with the libretto these sort of problems disappear.