Gluck: Armide
Felicity Palmer (Armide), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Renaud), Raimund Herincx (Hidraot), Yaron Wind-Muller (Aronte), Adrian Thompson (Artemidore), Sally Burgess (Phenice/Lucinde)
City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
Hickox motivates [the score] to good effect, with Rolfe Johnson deploying plenty of lyrical heroism
Gluck: Armide
Felicity Palmer (Armide), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Renaud), Raimund Herincx (Hidraot), Yaron Wind-Muller (Aronte), Adrian Thompson (Artemidore), Sally Burgess (Phenice/Lucinde)
City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
Purchase product
Hickox motivates [the score] to good effect, with Rolfe Johnson deploying plenty of lyrical heroism
About
The mid-price collection presents some of the most important and admired recordings of the EMI Classics and Virgin Classics catalogue which make EMI - The Home of Opera.
Bonus Disc contains synopsis and libretto with translation.
Contents and tracklist
- Marie Slorach (soprano), Sally Burgess (mezzo-soprano), Felicity Palmer (mezzo-soprano), Raimund Herincx (bass-baritone), Yaron Windmüller (baritone), Adrian Thompson (tenor), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor), Lynda Russell (soprano), Linda Finnie (mezzo-soprano), Keith Lewis (tenor), Stephen Roberts (baritone)
- City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox Singers
- Richard Hickox
- Recorded: 1982-06-30
- Recording Venue: 30 June 1982. Abbey Road Studios
Awards and reviews
February 2011
Hickox motivates [the score] to good effect, with Rolfe Johnson deploying plenty of lyrical heroism
The playing and singing of Hickox’s own orchestra and chorus are always mindful of stylistic matters, crisp and airy in the sensuous dance music, urgent and theatrical (in the best sense) in passionate sections of the score, which Hickox holds together in exemplary manner
January 2011
Hickox conducts with a fine sense of theatre, as well as an aptly Gluckian restraint...Palmer is remarkable at her best, and her duet with Rolfe Johnson ('Armide, vous m'allez quitter') is memorably done
July 2014
This recording was the first time I'd heard Felicity Palmer (now the doyenne of redoubtable contralto roles) in her soprano days - and my goodness, she's glorious on this ! Her big, commanding soprano is by turns imperious and pathetic as the Saracen sorceress who falls in love with a crusader (try 'Venez, venez, Haine implacable!' as she summons Hatred to fortify her against temptation.
