Great operas, written about 25 years apart and still demonstrated the musical characterisation and genius that was of his creativity, not seen again until perhaps Mozart, Wagner and Verdi.

Anyway, to answer your question, Rinaldo is easy: The Academy of Ancient Music/Hogwood. Title role by counter-tenor David Daniels. Great recording, universally recommended. (I have three versions of Rinaldo, and the other two all feature mezzo in the title role).

As for Ariodante, I'm afraid I can't think of any (as far as HIP is concerned, and I don't really care to listen to Handel on non-HIP). My version has Anne Sofie von Otter taking the title role (Les Musiciens du Louvre/Minkowski).

Historically though, it was a fact that when the leading castrato was not around for a performance, Handel was known to have substituted the castrato with a female mezzo/equivalent. Personally, I prefer the mezzo/female equivalent because it is a fuller voice and able to encompass the vocal range, which counter-tenors sometimes struggle with, especially at lower registers. The historic castrato and the mezzo/equivalent were never falsettists. So I'm going on purely musical reasons.

Good luck with Ariodante, keep us posted!

 

Historically though, it was a fact that when the leading castrato was not around for a performance, Handel was known to have substituted the castrato with a female mezzo/equivalent. Personally, I prefer the mezzo/female equivalent because it is a fuller voice and able to encompass the vocal range, which counter-tenors sometimes struggle with, especially at lower registers. The historic castrato and the mezzo/equivalent were never falsettists. So I'm going on purely musical reasons.

Yes, in an interview on my DVD of Ariodante, Alan Curtis said that the part of Polinesso was written for a woman because it sits in the lower register.

 

You're right about mezzos being able to tackle the lower register better than some countertenors - I've heard that the castrati were able not only to sing very high but also low so that their range alone was just as famous as the extremely high notes.

Thanks for the tip on Rinaldo, I remembered I'd heard of it a while back, before I'd really heard of David Daniels, and I've never really liked Cecilia Bartoli's voice that much (maybe shocking to some.... but people do have different tastes) so I didn't consider buying it at the time. I've also done some digging and found a recording with René Jacobs which has a woman cast as Rinaldo but also features Miah Persson, Lawrence Zazzo, Christophe Dumaux and Dominique Visse. Now if that recording only had David Daniels in the title role it would certainly be my dream cast!

I'd also heard of the Ariodante recording with Marc Minkowski; I bought Richard Crofts arias on iTunes because he's my favourite tenor.

Maybe I should buy the version with the best overall cast and "paste" the countertenor arias into the playlist instead of the mezzo versions... I know, I'm disgustingly picky...

 

I have not listened Hogwood's Rinaldo recording for a long time. At this time I have two recordings of Rinaldo:

Hogwood/Acacemy of Ancient Music

Jacobs/Freiburger Barockorchester

The Jacobs recording on Harmonia Mundi (original, not the recent re-issue) arrived at home yesterday . In a first listening, despite I admit Hogwood vocal cast is superior, I am enjoying the conducting of Jacobs, the performance of Freiburger Barockorchester, as usual extraordinary, especially the harpsichord, basso continuo with Nicolau de Figueiredo in the solo parts of the Aria for Armida Vo' far guerra. I absolutely like this part since was historically improvised by Handel itself and I am not the only one enjoying this part as I never enjoyed in any other opera since It made a great impression on the London public by the time Rinaldo was premiered.

Rinaldo is one of my favourite operas since contains the most beautiful arias ever composed: "Venti turbini", "Cara sposa", "Lascia ch'io pianga" "Vo' far guerra". I hope sooner than later I will listen to both recordings and come back with a deeper opinion.