Véronique Gens, Marie-Adeline Henry, Frédéric Antoun, Andrew Foster-Williams, Jean Teitgen, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Ulf Schirmer – Saint-Saëns: Proserpine (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:34:40 minutes | 958 MB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bru Zane
The protagonist of Saint-Saëns’ Proserpine, premiered at the Opéra-Comique on 14 March 1887, is no reincarnation of the ancient goddess, but a Renaissance courtesan well versed in culpable amours. According to the composer, she is ‘a damned soul for whom true love is a forbidden fruit; as soon as she approaches it, she experiences torture’. Yet for all the innocence of her rival Angiola, the unexpected happens: ‘It is the bloodthirsty beast that is admirable; the sweet creature is no more than pretty and likeable.’ Visibly enraptured by this delight in horror, Saint-Saëns indulges in unprecedented orchestral modernity, piling on the dissonances beneath his characters’ cries of rage or despair. He concluded thus: ‘Proserpine is, of all my stage works, the most advanced in the Wagnerian system.’ The least-known, too, and one which it was high time to reveal to the public, in its second version, revised in 1899.
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Andrew Foster-Williams, Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn – Handel: Alceste (2012/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:15 minutes | 829 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Handel wrote incidental music for only one play, Tobias Smollett’s Alceste, and it was never produced, so the composer, characteristically, recycled most of its major numbers. In this recording, Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company deliver a distinguished account of the rarely performed or recorded complete score. Written in 1750, late in Handel’s career, it is clearly the work of the composer at the height of his powers, and many of its numbers deserve broader exposure. The soprano aria “Gentle Morpheus” is easily among the loveliest the composer ever wrote, and Lucy Crowe sings it with ravishing sensuality. Crowe’s luminous singing in her three arias is one of the highlights of the album. Tenor Benjamin Hulett, whose part is given the bulk of the solos, performs with agility and lightness. Baritone Andrew Foster-Williams seems less than fully at ease with the coloratura of his single aria. The orchestral playing is crisply precise and exceptionally nimble, and the chorus sings with clarity and high spirits.
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