Handel: Berenice, regina d'Egitto, HWV 38

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...the characterisation of the title role has a complexity not unlike that of Rodelinda. Spurred on by superior material...Ek delivers an outstanding performance in the soft-grained acoustics... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2010, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 14th Jun 2010
Catalogue No: 6285362
Label: Erato
Length: 2 hours 46 minutes

Gramophone Awards

2011

Shortlisted - Baroque Vocal

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Excerpt, Handel: Berenice, regina d'Egitto, HWV 38

Work length6:44

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Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis
Recorded: 2009-11-13
Recording Venue: 13-19 November 2009. Villa San Fermo, Lonigo, Italy.

Overture - Allegro

Track length2:46

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Andante larghetto

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Gigue

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Handel: Berenice, regina d'Egitto, HWV 38, Act 1

Work length53:32

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$34.00

Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani (tenor), Ingela Bohlin (soprano), Klara Ek (soprano), Franco Fagioli (countertenor), Romina Basso (mezzo-soprano), Vito Priante (bass), Mary-Ellen Nesi (mezzo-soprano)
Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis

Recitativo. "Aristobolo, a noi" - "Berenice, al tuo soglio" (Fabio, Alessandro, Berenice)

Track length1:25

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Aria. "No, che service altrui" (Berenice)

Track length4:48

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Recitativo. "Fabio, vedesti mai più bell'orgoglio?" (Alessandro, Fabio)

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Aria. "Vedi l'ape ch'ingegnosa" (Fabio)

Track length4:32

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Recitativo. "Io di Selene?" (Alessandro)

Track length0:23

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Aria. "Che sarà quando amante accarezza" (Alessandro)

Track length4:57

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Recitativo. "Cara, non sospirar!" (Demetrio, Selene)

Track length0:58

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Aria. "No, soffrir non può il mio amore" (Demetrio)

Track length4:38

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Recitativo. "Selene, oh Dei!" (Aristobolo, Selene)

Track length0:16

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Aria. "Gelo, avvampo" (Selene)

Track length4:46

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Recitativo. "Alla quiete d'Egitto" (Aristobolo)

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Aria. "Con gli strali d'amor" (Aristobolo)

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Recitativo. "Roma, sì, sì ti intendo" - "Oh dei! sorella, oh dei!" (Berenice, Arsace, Selene)

Track length2:32

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Aria. "Dice amor, quel bel vermiglio" (Berenice)

Track length5:26

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Recitativo. "Principessa, ed è ver?" (Arsace, Selene)

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Aria. "Senza nudrice alcuna" (Arsace)

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Recitativo. "Alessandro, che pensi?" - "Neppur le regie porte" (Demetrio, Alessandro, Berenice, Fabio, Aristobolo)

Track length1:54

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Aria. "Quell'oggetto, che è caro" (Alessandro)

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Recitativo. "Che valor! Che finezza!" (Demetrio, Berenice)

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Duetto. "Se il mio amor fu il tuo delitto" (Berenice, Demetrio)

Track length4:51

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Handel: Berenice, regina d'Egitto, HWV 38, Act 2

Work length51:00

$26.00

$34.00

Franco Fagioli (countertenor), Klara Ek (soprano), Ingela Bohlin (soprano), Mary-Ellen Nesi (mezzo-soprano), Vito Priante (bass), Romina Basso (mezzo-soprano), Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani (tenor)
Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis

Cavatina. "Se non ho l'idol mio" (Demetrio)

Track length1:25

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Recitativo. "Demetrio, anima mia" - "Giacché per tuo consorte" (Fabio, Demetrio, Berenice)

Track length1:39

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Cavatina. "Guerra, e pace Egizia terra" (Fabio)

Track length1:31

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Recitativo. "Molto afflitto, Demetrio, ancor paventi?" (Berenice, Demetrio)

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Aria. "Sempre dolci, ed amorose non vi voglio" (Berenice)

Track length7:10

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Recitativo. "Selene, infida!" (Demetrio)

Track length1:32

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Aria. "Su, Megera, Tesifone, Aletto!" (Demetrio)

Track length5:33

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Cavatina. "Mio bel sol, dove t'aggiri?" (Alessandro)

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Recitativo. "Prence Alessandro" - "Oh dei! Fabio minaccia" (Aristobolo, Alessandro, Arsace)

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Aria. "La bella mano, che mi pigò" (Alessandro)

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Recitativo. "Aristobolo, oh Dei!" (Arsace, Aristobolo)

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Aria. "Amore contro amor" (Arsace)

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Recitativo. "Tiranna degli affetti" (Aristobolo)

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Aria. "Senza te sarebbe il mondo" (Aristobolo)

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Recitativo. "E qual furor geloso" - "lo solo per tuo amor" (Demetrio, Berenice, Selene)

Track length1:01

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Aria. "Traditore! cosi vago di sembiante" (Berenice)

Track length3:35

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Recitativi. "Empia, tu piangi?" - "Principessa, t'arresta" - "A me ne fe' il rifiuto" (Fabio, Alessandro, Berenice, Demetrio, Selene, Arsace)

Track length2:14

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Aria. "Sì, tra i ceppi, e le ritorte" (Demetrio)

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Recitativo. "È questo l'amor tuo?" (Arsace, Selene)

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Aria. "Si poco è forte" (Selene)

Track length5:40

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Handel: Berenice, regina d'Egitto, HWV 38, Act 3: Sinfonia

Work length2:07

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Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis

Handel: Berenice, regina d'Egitto, HWV 38, Act 3

Work length41:38

Album only

This work is only available as an album download.

Album only

This work is only available as an album download.

Franco Fagioli (countertenor), Klara Ek (soprano), Vito Priante (bass), Romina Basso (mezzo-soprano), Mary-Ellen Nesi (mezzo-soprano), Ingela Bohlin (soprano), Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani (tenor)
Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis

Recitativo. "Olà! Tra lacci suoi" - "Eccomi, o Berenice" (Demetrio, Berenice, Aristobolo)

Track length1:59

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Aria. "Per si bella cagion" (Demetrio)

Track length4:02

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Recitativo. "Mia Regina" - "Regina, addio!" (Aristobolo, Fabio, Berenice)

Track length1:10

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Aria. "Chi t'intende?" (Berenice)

Track length10:31

Album only

This track is only available as an album download.

Album only

This track is only available as an album download.

Cavatina. "Tortorella, che rimira" (Selene)

Track length2:57

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Recitativo. "Qui dove il mio tesoro" (Selene, Arsace)

Track length0:54

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Aria. "Questa qual sia beltà" (Selene)

Track length5:11

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Recitativo. "Qual arduo impegno, o Arsace!" (Alessandro, Arsace)

Track length0:57

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Duetto. "Le dirai" (Alessandro, Arsace)

Track length2:09

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Recitativo. "Prence, d'Iside al tempio" (Fabio, Alessandro)

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Aria. "In quella sola" (Alessandro)

Track length6:02

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Recitativo. "De'satrapi è adunata l'assemble" (Aristobolo, Berenice)

Track length0:42

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Aria. "Avvertite mie pupille" (Berenice)

Track length4:34

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Handel: Berenice, regina d'Egitto, HWV 38, Act 3: Sinfonia

Work length1:44

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$1.70

Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis

Handel: Berenice, regina d'Egitto, HWV 38, Act 3

Work length9:14

$5.20

$6.80

Ingela Bohlin (soprano), Klara Ek (soprano), Mary-Ellen Nesi (mezzo-soprano), Romina Basso (mezzo-soprano), Franco Fagioli (countertenor), Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani (tenor), Vito Priante (bass)
Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis

Recitativo. "Gran Nume tutelar" (Berenice, Selene, Arsace, Alessandro)

Track length2:10

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Duetto. "Quel bel labbro" (Berenice, Alessandro)

Track length3:50

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Recitativo. "Ora Selene è mia" (Arsace, Selene, Demetrio, Alessandro, Berenice)

Track length1:01

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Coro finale. "Con verace dolce pace" (Tutti)

Track length2:13

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Recording of the Week, Handel's Berenice

14th June 2010

Alan Curtis presides over a highly persuasive account of Handel’s late opera with Il Complesso Barocco, starring Klara Ek in the title-role and Argentine countertenor Franco Fagioli as Demetrio.

With this release of Berenice, Alan Curtis – described by the New York Times as “one of the great scholar-musicians of recent times” – adds his seventh recording of a complete Handel opera to the Virgin Classics catalogue.

“One of the great scholar-musicians of recent times” is how the New York Times has described Alan Curtis, while Gramophone judges that: “Alan Curtis has done more than most to prove that many of Handel's 42 operas are first-rate music dramas”, and the BBC Music Magazine has praised him as “a seasoned Handelian who has contributed, perhaps more than anyone now, to the composer’s operas on disc.”

This Berenice is Curtis’ seventh complete recording of a Handel opera for Virgin Classics; the six previous works (Admeto, Arminio, Deidamia, Radamisto, Rodrigo and Fernando, rè di Castiglia) were re-released in a special 15-CD box in 2009, and 2011 will bring the release of Ariodante, with Joyce Di Donato in the title role, supported by Karina Gauvin, Sabina Puertolas, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Topi Lehtipuu.

In Berenice, set in Alexandria in 80 B.C., the title role of the Egyptian queen is taken by Swedish soprano Klara Ek, while Italian countertenor Franco Fagioli is Demetrio, the man she loves, but who loves her sister Selene, played by Italian mezzo Romina Basso; another Swedish soprano, Ingela Bohlin takes the travesty role of Alessandro, the man Berenice is expected to marry for political expediency, but whom she finally happily chooses as her consort.

Berenice was composed at a turbulent time in Handel’s career, when he was undergoing both professional and personal crises. It turned out to be the last opera he wrote for John Rich’s new theatre in Covent Garden and was performed only four times before disappearing from view. The first staged production since the 18th century took place in 1985 in the UK, at the University of Keele; the opera was subsequently staged in Cambridge in 1993; in Germany, the Karlsruhe Handel Festival presented Berenice in 2001.

Alan Curtis' ensemble Il Complesso Barocco is based in Venice, the home of the American-born writer Donna Leon, celebrated around the world for her series of thrillers set in the Italian city. Mr Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco would like to thank Ms Leon “for having given every conceivable form of support, encouragement and inspiration for this project”.

Reviews

September 2010

...the characterisation of the title role has a complexity not unlike that of Rodelinda. Spurred on by superior material...Ek delivers an outstanding performance in the soft-grained acoustics of the Villa San Fermo, Lonigo.

October 2010

Nothing is merely pretty or polite. Klara Ek makes a vivid Berenice...As ever, Curtis encourages his orchestra to cajole, plead, grieve and rage as eloquently as his singers...In sum, a compelling account of an opera that...contains far too much fine music to merit its generally poor reputation amongst Handel scholars.

2011 edition

The performance is admirably sung, dominated by Klara Ek's rapturous portrayal of Berenice...Curtis secures consistently fine playing from Il Complesso Barocco and directs the opera itself with a perfect combination of sensitivity and vitality.

11th July 2010

Klara Ek sings it [wonderfully]— with excellent support from the countertenor Franco Fagioli and Ingela Bohlin as rivals for her hand, and the sumptuous Romina Basso as her sister Selene...It’s a must for hardcore Handelians

12th August 2010

The recording is wonderful, one of Alan Curtis's finest, and conducted with an acerbic elegance that hovers between sensuality and anger. Klara Ek's blazing, impetuous Berenice is worth every one of those five stars on its own, though there's also some fabulous singing from Ingela Bohlin (Alessandro), Romina Basso (Selene) and Franco Fagioli (Demetrio)

25th June 2010

...this recording is immaculate...Although Alan Curtis ranks as one of the most prominent scholars of baroque music, there is no hint of the academic in his spry and witty conducting. Il Complesso Barocco plays with unfailing delicacy, grace and charm

25th June 2010

Alan Curtis and...Il Complesso Barocco unveil a score featuring many individual delights. They bounce out of singers’ throats, accompanied by an unusually restrained orchestra of strings, with the occasional woodwind highlight...Throughout, Curtis’s group play with unfussy vigour and clarity.

Handel: Berenice, regina d'Egitto, HWV 38

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Recording of the Week, Handel's Berenice

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