Zachary Wilder reviews
Lully - Armide 1778
Various; Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet (Alpha Classics)
JS Bach: St Matthew Passion
Benjamin Bruns, Carolyn Sampson, Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki (BIS)
Paul Agnew directs Monteverdi's L’Orfeo
British tenor Paul Agnew tackles an operatic triathlon here, as soloist (in the roles of Eco and Apollo), and as both musical and stage director of this new production of L’Orfeo filmed at the Théâtre de Caen. His mise en scène paints a series of pastoral tableaux with apt simplicity – a welcome change from the anachronisms directors often impose on early opera (though the singers’ actions would have benefitted from a little more direction).