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Handel Alcina on CD

3K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  Bernamej 
#1 · (Edited)
Ok what is your favorite CD set of this opera?

Of the four I have listened to (Auger, Fleming, DiDonato, and Sutherland), my favorite is the DiDonato set where every voice is wonderful to my ear:



My second favorite is Sutherland:


These next two I could take or leave, and so long as I have the DiDonato set I'll leave them off my MP3 player.



Tell me what are your favorites?
 
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#3 · (Edited)
I listened to sound clips of this and found it to be an exceptionally good performance and in pretty decent sound so I had to order a copy. This should be relatively complete as it has three disks though the third disk also has some Giulio Cesare highlights (and wonderful too--if only a complete set were available with these singers!).


I got rid of the Hickox set by giving it to my son after we attended Alcina live last month. Hickox was my least favorite. It remains to be seen if this Sutherland set beats out the DiDonato set for me.

There is at least one other Sutherland set (besides Leitner and the one above) but it is only two disks. Great cover though:
 
#4 ·
I've been listening quite a bit to Alcina in preparation to going to see it in a week. (Tornami a vagheggiar is my current earworm.)

I don't currently have a recording and I'm considering getting one, but which should I choose?

Fleming and Graham leave me cold, I'm afraid (and Arleen Auger's voice is too small for my tastes), so that rules out the Hickox and the Christie. That leaves the Bonynge and the Curtis. Sutherland is better in the two live versions when her voice still had that superb clarity, but the rest of the cast is better than those in her two live sets and this one is the more complete of the three. I like DiDonato, but I haven't liked Curtis' conducting in the past, perhaps I should listen again though.

What are your recommendations?

N
 
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