COMPOSERS: Handel
LABELS: Philips
WORKS: The Sorceress
PERFORMER: Kiri Te Kanawa (soprano); Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
CATALOGUE NO: 434 992-2 DDD
First shown on TV last Christmas, The Sorceress is a modern pasticcio comprising several of Handel’s more languorous arias interspersed with instrumental interludes also taken from his operas. Alas, the soundtrack music here is curiously unengaging, its beauty curdled by the lack of credible dramatic purpose or characterisation. Kiri Te Kanawa’s singing, coolly impeccable, does not seem best-suited to Handel’s thrillingly sensuous music, and even the AAM sounds merely slick. Decorous but dull. Graham Lock
Handel: The Sorceress
First shown on TV last Christmas, The Sorceress is a modern pasticcio comprising several of Handel’s more languorous arias interspersed with instrumental interludes also taken from his operas. Alas, the soundtrack music here is curiously unengaging, its beauty curdled by the lack of credible dramatic purpose or characterisation. Kiri Te Kanawa’s singing, coolly impeccable, does not seem best-suited to Handel’s thrillingly sensuous music, and even the AAM sounds merely slick. Decorous but dull. Graham Lock
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:30 pm