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Handel's Queens

Cuzzoni and Faustina

Lucy Crowe, Mary Bevan, London Early Opera, Bridget Cunningham

Awards:

Crowe and Bevan recreate two prime donne through their own blazing talents.

Handel's Queens

Cuzzoni and Faustina

Lucy Crowe, Mary Bevan, London Early Opera, Bridget Cunningham

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This release includes a digital booklet

Stream now Hi-RES 96 kHz, 24 bit

Awards:

Crowe and Bevan recreate two prime donne through their own blazing talents.

About

Handel’s Queens features some of the most exquisite pieces of music written by G.F. Handel and his contemporaries for the two finest singers of the eighteenth century, Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni. Often wrongfully framed as rivals, these dazzling new recordings with Mary Bevan and Lucy Crowe reveal the distinctive yet versatile talent of the Italian vocalists.

Led by London Early Opera Director, Bridget Cunningham, Handel’s Queens serves an example of the group’s dedication to imaginative programming and outstanding period performance, placing them at the forefront of baroque research.

Contents and tracklist

Sento che già il pensier
Track length4:34
Deh! lascia o core
Track length4:18
Menuet
Track length1:31
Ascolta o figlio
Track length1:18

Spotlight on this release

Awards and reviews

  • BBC Music Magazine
    October 2019
    Recording of the Month
  • Gramophone Awards
    2020
    Shortlisted - Recital

October 2019

Crowe and Bevan recreate two prime donne through their own blazing talents.

September 2019

This soundly made programme is both pleasing and intriguing…Crowe plays Cuzzoni as a bright soprano whose technical precision and agile upward-leaping ornaments combine with musicality to impress and move, while Mary Bevan offers a Bordoni with a lower centre of gravity, generally darker and more directly theatrical.

October 2019

The two British sopranos that emulate them here are both significant artists in their own right with distinctive voices of their own, Lucy Crowe’s bright soprano bringing to Cuzzoni’s arias quite a different character to the fuller, more burnished tone of Mary Bevan.

21st July 2019

Crowe draws the long straw with Cuzzoni’s show-stoppers from Giulio Cesare and Scipione, but Bevan’s sweet tone and instrumental style shine in lesser works for Faustina.

12th July 2019

Lucy Crowe, clear as a bell, is outstanding in arias reflecting Cuzzoni’s higher vocal range. Mary Bevan can’t shine as strongly in Bordoni’s lower register, but she remains an enjoyable guide to delectable titbits by Hasse, Bononcini and other oddments, as well as Handel.

Opera Now September 2019

The choice of singers in Handel’s Queens seems perfect, for the two excellent and appropriate voices are neatly contrasted while displaying the required virtuosity. Cunningham’s contribution is adroit, with pace and style aplenty and she conducts from the harpsichord.

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