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Handel: Alessandro, HWV21

Max Emanuel Cencic (Alessandro), Karina Gauvin (Lisaura), Julia Lezhneva (Roxana), Xavier Sabata (Tassile), Juan Sancho (Leonato)

Armonia Atenea, George Petrou

Handel: Alessandro, HWV21

Awards:

These discs should come with an asbestos slipcase, so incendiary is the performance they convey...Cencic is imperious hot-bloodedness personified...perhaps best of all is Karina Gauvin's utterly...

BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 20125 out of 5 stars

More reviews

Handel: Alessandro, HWV21

Max Emanuel Cencic (Alessandro), Karina Gauvin (Lisaura), Julia Lezhneva (Roxana), Xavier Sabata (Tassile), Juan Sancho (Leonato)

Armonia Atenea, George Petrou

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Awards:

These discs should come with an asbestos slipcase, so incendiary is the performance they convey...Cencic is imperious hot-bloodedness personified...perhaps best of all is Karina Gauvin's utterly...

BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 20125 out of 5 stars

More reviews

About

Handel’s ninth major opera for London, Alessandro was written as a showcase for the “Rival Queens”, the two famous Italian sopranos – Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni – whose supposed enmity, both personal and professional, not only generated good publicity for Handel’s latest opera but also added extra dramatic frisson to the two divas’ jealous clashes on stage.

Still something of a rarity even in this heyday of the Handel revival, Alessandro has only ever been recorded twice before over the past 30 years, and never previously with such a starry trio of singers in the three lead roles.

Marking the start of an exciting new partnership with the sensational Croatian counter-tenor Max Emanuel Cencic (and his company Parnassus Arts) that will involve both solo and ensemble recordings, this new recording stars Cenèiæ himself as Alexander the Great (a role originally sung by the legendary castrato Senesino), with acclaimed French Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin as the Scythian princess Lisaura, and the sensational young Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva – making her debut appearance as Decca’s latest exciting solo signing – in the role of Roxana, the Persian princess who finally wins the conqueror’s heart.

Recorded at the Megaron concert hall in Athens, this new recording of Handel’s classical epic features the period instruments of Armonia Atenea conducted by George Petrou, the brilliant young Baroque specialist whose previous recordings of Handel operas (Oreste, Arianna in Creta, Tamerlano, Giulio Cesare and the pasticcio Alessandro Severo) have won numerous international awards.

  • Release date: 10th Sep 2012
  • Label: Decca
  • Catalogue number: 4784699
  • Length: 3 hours 9 minutes
  • Genre:

Contents and tracklist

Handel: Alessandro - Opera in 3 Acts, HWV 21
Work length5:16
Overture
Track length5:16
Handel: Alessandro - Opera in 3 Acts, HWV 21 / Act 1
Work length1:12:32
"E tanto ancor s’indugia a superare questo vil muro?"
Track length1:02
Sinfonia e Recitativo: "Ossidraca superba" - Recitativo - "Oh smisurato ardire!" - Sinfonia del crollo del muro
Track length1:58
Recitativo: "Grazie all’eterno Giove"
Track length0:59
Aria: "Fra le stragi e fra le morti"
Track length4:13
Recitativo accompagnato: "Che vidi! - Che mirai?"
Track length1:40
Recitativo: "Ecco Tassile, il re dell’Indi"
Track length0:57
Aria: "Quanto dolce amor sarìa se non fosse gelosia"
Track length4:39
Recitativo: "Ne’ trofei d’Alessandro trionfa ancor quest’alma"
Track length0:27
Aria: "Lusinghe più care"
Track length5:12
Recitativo: "Sventurato ch’io sono!"
Track length0:55
Aria: "Vibra, cortese Amor, un’altro strale"
Track length7:24
Solo e coro: "Fra le guerre e le vittorie fama eterna il ciel mi dà"
Track length1:23
Recitativo: "Apprestasti, oh Cleone, i sacrifici a Giove"
Track length0:31
Recitativo: "Dalla vittoria alla bellezza in braccio passa un felice vincitor"
Track length1:22
Aria: "No, più soffrir non voglio"
Track length3:53
Recitativo accompagnato: "Vilipese bellezze"
Track length1:30
Recitativo: "Pur ti ritrovo; e perché mai partisti?"
Track length1:08
Aria: "Men fedele, men costante finge il labbro, e non il cor"
Track length5:40
Recitativo: "Sì, lusingando ei parla, e par che m’ami"
Track length0:30
Aria: "Un lusinghiero dolce pensiero"
Track length6:42
Recitativo: "Tu, che Rossane adori"
Track length0:57
Aria: "Pregi son d’un alma grande l’amicizia"
Track length3:57
Recitativo: "Sempre del suo valor, fido seguace sarò"
Track length0:25
Aria: "A sprone, a fren leggiero un nobile destriero contento ubbidirà"
Track length2:15
Sinfonia
Track length1:23
Recitativo: "Al magnanimo, al forte, al vincitore"
Track length0:42
Sinfonia
Track length0:48
Recitativo accompagnato: "Primo motor delle superne sfere"
Track length0:57
Recitativo: "Figlio del Re degl’immortali Numi"
Track length1:34
Duetto: "Placa l’alma, quieta il petto!"
Track length2:13
Recitativo: "Fra gli uomini e fra i Numi"
Track length0:38
Aria: "Da un breve riposo di stato amoroso"
Track length4:38
Handel: Alessandro - Opera in 3 Acts, HWV 21 / Act 2
Work length1:05:54
Recitativo ed Arioso: "Solitudine amate in cui sfogarmi lice una fiamma infelice"
Track length2:50
"Aure, fonti, ombre gradite"
Track length3:40
"Recitativo ed Arioso: Eccola in preda al sonno"
Track length3:33
Aria: "Vano amore, lusinga, diletto"
Track length4:53
Recitativo: "Tiranna passion, lasciami in pace!"
Track length2:45
Aria: "Sempre fido e disprezzato"
Track length4:47
Recitativo: "Pur troppo veggio d’Alessandro il core alla rival rivolto"
Track length0:28
Aria: "Che tirannia d’Amor!"
Track length6:46
Recitativo: "Qui aspetto l’incostante"
Track length2:42
Aria: "Alla sua gabbia d’oro suol ritornar talor quell’augellin"
Track length6:43
Recitativo: "Vince al fin la beltà - Recitativo: Vincitor generoso"
Track length1:25
Aria: "Risolvo abbandonar la bella che mi sprezza"
Track length3:09
Recitativo: "Finto sereno è d’Alessandro in volto"
Track length0:35
Aria: "La cervetta nei lacci avvolta"
Track length4:45
Sinfonia - Recitativo: "Dopo il sublime onor delle gran geste"
Track length3:33
Recitativo: "Oh Dei! che infausta nuova!" - Recitativo: "Recitativo: Sire, il popol già vinto l’armi ripiglia"
Track length2:03
Aria: "Il cor mio, ch’è già per te tutto amore e tutto fé"
Track length6:04
Recitativo: "Svanisci oh reo timore di tormentosa gelosia!"
Track length0:24
Aria: "Dica il falso, dica il vero"
Track length4:49
Handel: Alessandro - Opera in 3 Acts, HWV 21 / Act 3
Work length45:38
Arioso: "Sfortunato è il mio valore"
Track length1:57
Recitativo: "L’adulator s’appressa" - Recitativo: "Renditi, o mori!"
Track length1:55
Aria: "Sarò qual vento, che nell’incendio spira"
Track length2:38
Recitativo - "La resa libertà dunque, oh Rossane, a lasciarne t’alletta?"
Track length0:54
Aria: "Sì, m’è caro imitar quel bel fiore"
Track length3:26
Recitativo: "Sento un’interna inusitata gioja"
Track length0:41
Aria: "Brilla nell’alma"
Track length5:23
Recitativo: "Qual tormento crudel soffrir non fanno ambo assalendo un core ambizione e amore! "
Track length1:24
Aria: "L’amor, che per te sento"
Track length4:27
Recitativo: "Sì generoso affetto degno è d’amor" - Recitativo: "E qual fisso pensier sospende, oh Sire, l’eccelsa mente?"
Track length1:55
Aria: "Pupille amate"
Track length2:23
Recitativo: "Numi eterni"
Track length0:32
Aria: "Tempesta e calma sento nell’alma"
Track length4:15
"D’uom fiero nel soglio si domi l’orgoglio"
Track length0:32
Recitativo: "Chi oserà traditore assalire Alessandro?"
Track length1:08
Aria: "Prove sono di grandezza"
Track length3:34
"Spegni, oh supremo Regnator de’ Numi, dell’orrida civil guerra la face! - Si festeggi il bel giorno di mia tranquillità!"
Track length2:57
Duetto: "In generoso onor, bella, ti cede il cor…"
Track length1:48
"Cara, la tua beltà in me sol regnerà…"
Track length2:10
"Amico arrida il Ciel al nostro amor fedel"
Track length1:39

Spotlight on this release

Awards and reviews

  • BBC Music Magazine
    Disc of the month
  • Diapason d’Or de l’Année
    2013
    Winner - Opéra baroque

Christmas 2012

These discs should come with an asbestos slipcase, so incendiary is the performance they convey...Cencic is imperious hot-bloodedness personified...perhaps best of all is Karina Gauvin's utterly disarming Lisaura, her coloratura dazzling, her bright soprano full of personality...Just as thrilling is the visceral playing...Pert and incisive, the overture crackles with energy...A revelation.
5 out of 5 stars

December 2012

Petrou offers panache and fizzy unpredictablity...[Cencic] is clearly not going to play second fiddle to his rival queens...This is an essential purchase just for the infectiously joyful performance of Rossane's 'Brilla nell'alma'...Armonia Atenea's playing is refreshingly free from formulaic complacency.
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