Handel: Enchantresses Sandrine Piau, soprano Les Paladins, Jérôme Correas, director Alpha Classics Soprano Sandrine Piau is a versatile artist who has compellingly performed a wide range of repertoire. Handel has remained a touchstone for Piau, and on Handel:Enchantresses, she explores a different subset of characters than the heroines and ingenues that were her bread and butter as a young singer. Handel is one of the great composers at illustrating grief, despair, and tempestuousness. The characters who inhabit these traits are given a showcase on this Alpha Classics CD. Piau’s theatrical and expressive capabilities are on full display
Read moreThis week, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has a new album out on Erato. In War and Peace features arias by Handel, Purcell, and other baroque composers that deal with, as one might expect, bellicose and pacific themes. Her coloratura and ornamentation are impressive throughout, as is the purity and beauty of her voice. Il Pomo d’Oro, led from the harpsichord by Maxim Emelyanychev, provides supple and stirring accompaniment. DiDonato is also using the album project as a springboard for conversations about ways to bring peace to our strife-torn world, with the hashtag #TalkPeace as its convergence point. In addition to reviews of the album, making
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