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Amor e gelosia: Handel
Operatic Duets
Patrizia Ciofi & Joyce Di Donato
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This audio CD is a compilation of 17 duets from the opera by Georg Friedrich Haendel, sung by the Italian soprano Patrizia Ciofi and the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, recorded in Montevarchi, Italy in 2003. According to the booklet that comes with the CD, the 17 tracks are arranged in a chronology of love, starting with duets depicting the joy and certainty of new love, to the middle tracks where love experiences doubts, jealousy, and melancholy. After all the trials true love experiences, the final tracks return to the expression of eternal love that can endure all things. All the numbers on this CD are very well sung indeed. (...)
The Italian soprano Patrizia Ciofi (also to be found as Idaspe in the stellar recording of Vivaldi's Bajazet) has been a star in Europe for some years now in the bel canto roles, but has rarely made news here in the USA (the downside of not being a scandalous diva, I guess). Her young and very agile wooden-flute-like voice is very dark for a soprano. She is very adept at showing feisty emotions (anger, outrage, discontent) or a short-lived spontaneous compulsion, though not so in conveying vulnerability.
The American mezzo Joyce DiDonato; on the other hand, is now becoming a major star on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Hers is a lustrously rich and clear mezzo voice (something between the oboe and a brass instrument in quality). And she is the more introspective voice of this pairing, while Sra Ciofi is more dynamic. Both sound at home in these florid duets, making the virtuoso coloratura passages sound effortlessly easy (and they ornament them very tastefully to each number's mood rather than to gratuitously show off their skills). The two complement each other well, though ideally I’d like the soprano voice to be a bit lighter as Sra Ciofi's female character often sounds huskier than her supposedly male counterpart. They are well accompanied by the period instrument orchestra Il complesso barocco under the direction of Maestro Alan Curtis, who is as sensitive and supple in the recitatives (lead in sung speech) as in the arias and duets themselves. I think I would prefer a richer sound from the orchestra, but then this thin sound is probably more correct and proper for the Baroque style.
1. PORO: Caro amico amplesso! This is a duet of conciliation sung by the lovers Poro the Indian Prince, and his beloved Cleofide. It is taken rather out of sequence with the other excerpts from the opera, actually occurring later in the story than the other numbers (tracks 10, 11, 12, 14). Having had their fights and misunderstandings, the lovers are now reconciled and falling in love with each other all over again.
2. RINALDO: Scherzano sul tuo volto This duet is a marvelous musical portrayal of 2 lovers out on an easy stroll in the garden. Rinaldo the knight and his fiancee Almirena can’t know what trials loom ahead in the opera as they are lost in blissful love for each other.
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