Cleopatra

Cleopatra - Handel: Giulio Cesare Arias / Natalie Dessay Composer: George Frideric Handel Performer: Natalie Dessay Conductor: Emmanuelle Haﾋm Orchestra/Ensemble: Le Concert D'Astrﾂe On this disc Natalie Dessay sings eight arias for Cleopatra plus some recitatives to put the arias in context. These are not all the arias Handel wrote for her. In the first act there are another two besides: Tutto puﾕ: Non disperar and Tu la mia stella. On the other hand Dessay includes two arias that Handel wrote but replaced with those normally heard today. Thus Se pietﾅ is followed by Per dar vita, which was Handel's first thought for that particular scene. He then reworked Per dar vita as the aria for Sesto in the last act. Troppo crudeli (tr. 13) is interesting to hear. It's a good piece of music but Handel knew a winner when he had composed Piangerﾕ for the third act and it is probably the best known aria in the whole opera. Emmanuelle Haﾋm is one of today's foremost experts on baroque music and together with Le Concert d'Astrﾂe she has built up an impressive discography, which has met with universal acclaim. They play here at pitch A=415 Hz and produce a biting yet transparent sound, demonstrated on their own in a fresh and springy overture, a properly warlike Sinfonia bellica and superb French horns in the sinfonia that precedes the last scene. But Handel doesn't only require drama and flair, he also demands beauty of tone. Ms Dessay has that as well - and in abundance. Just listen to V'adoro, pupille! So ravishingly beautiful! Piangerﾕ, the noblest of Handel's arias and is sung here with warmth and sadness, while the fast middle section, where she expresses her wish to trouble the tyrant night and day with her ghost, is intensely vitriolic. The da capo section is stylishly embellished - as in all the arias. A masterly reading. She is well partnered by Sonia Prina's Cesare. The Italian contralto has made Handel something of a specialty. Her homepage lists fourteen Handel operas and among them she has sung Giulio Cesare in Lille under the baton of Emmanuelle Haﾋm. Natalie Dessay and Sonia Prina are nicely contrasted in the final duet.