Handel: Aci, Galatea e Polifemo
Roberta Invernizzi (Aci), Blandine Staskiewicz (Galatea) & Lisandro Abadie (Polifemo)
La Risonanza, Fabio Bonizzoni
The deftness of tempos, sweetness of variations, detailing of dynamics, and above all the musicians' total investment in the drama are irresistable...[Invernizzi and Abadie] ignite the other...
Handel: Aci, Galatea e Polifemo
Roberta Invernizzi (Aci), Blandine Staskiewicz (Galatea) & Lisandro Abadie (Polifemo)
La Risonanza, Fabio Bonizzoni
Purchase product
The deftness of tempos, sweetness of variations, detailing of dynamics, and above all the musicians' total investment in the drama are irresistable...[Invernizzi and Abadie] ignite the other...
About
Fabio Bonizzoni returns with his long-awaited new recording of Handel’s 'Aci, Galatea e Polifemo'. Who better to team up with Bonizzoni, performing the role of the luckless shepherd Aci, than scintillating soprano Roberta Invernizzi. Her captivating contributions to Glossa's Handel series with La Risonanza as well as her 'I Viaggi di Faustina' have drawn powerful critical plaudits, including more than one disc of the Month.
Handel’s virtuosic and ebullient score, written for a 1708 wedding whilst he was in Naples (Carlo Vitali sets the scene in his enjoyably discursive booklet essay) also summons Argentinean bass, Lisandro Abadie, to demonstrate an awe-inspiring range that well becomes the monstrous nature of Polifemo. He is joined by French mezzo Blandine Staskiewicz, admirably suited to portray Galatea’s plaintive charms.
+ Bonus track from 'Clori, Tirsi e Fileno', HWV 96, Cantata a tre, Roma 1707: Duetto, Senza occhi e senza accenti
Contents and tracklist
- Roberta Invernizzi (soprano), Fabio Bonizzoni (harpsichord), Lisandro Abadie (bass), Blandine Staskiewicz (mezzo-soprano)
- Risonanza, La
- Recorded: 25-30 June 2012
- Recording Venue: Saint-Michel-en-Thierache Abbey, Thierache, France
- Roberta Invernizzi (soprano), Fabio Bonizzoni (harpsichord), Lisandro Abadie (bass), Blandine Staskiewicz (mezzo-soprano)
- Risonanza, La
- Recorded: 25-30 June 2012
- Recording Venue: Saint-Michel-en-Thierache Abbey, Thierache, France
Awards and reviews
November 2013
The deftness of tempos, sweetness of variations, detailing of dynamics, and above all the musicians' total investment in the drama are irresistable...[Invernizzi and Abadie] ignite the other performers, spurring the ensemble to new affective heights...This is a benchmark recording of Aci
Awards Issue 2013
Staskiewicz sings with clean, 'straight' tone but doesn't begin to suggest Galatea's sensuality...I'm glad to have heard Invernizzi in Aci's music; and the playing of La Risonanza is lively and supple.
June 2014
Lisandro Abadie fits the bill admirably, placing passaggi with precision and surviving the massive leaps and sepulchral bottom notes of the notorious ‘Fra l’ombre’ virtually unscathed. Roberta Invernizzi has been one of the mainstays of the series and she again proves that for sheer style she has few rivals today in this repertoire...The French mezzo Blandine Staskiewicz is equally beguiling.
1st September 2013
[Abadie is] a real discovery in this virtuoso role. He is matched by Invernizzi in the male lead role of Aci, her bright soprano lithe and agile...Staskiewicz sounds like a young Bernarda Fink as Galatea...Like Risonanza’s previous issues, this deserves to be garlanded with awards.
8th September 2013
it has a succession of quite wonderful arias which Fabio Bonizzoni and his crack team...realise with edgy eloquence...[Lisandro Abadie's] passion is touching, as is the poise of Roberta Invernizzi's ice-cold grief in the show-stopping Verso già l'alma.
14th September 2013
Bonizzoni’s excellent ensemble plays it with terrific verve, and the fabulously free-wheeling arias - Handel before he donned the Hanoverian straitjacket – are dispatched with style and energy
Early Music Today December 2013
Its range of musical delights included Aci’s poignant lament ‘Verso gia L’alma’ and Polifemo’s tenebrous ‘Fra l’ombre e gli orrori’, with its thrilling vocal plunge through two-and-a-half octaves. This disc serves as a coda to Fabio Bonizzoni’s excellent recordings of Handel’s Italian cantatas.
