Brand: Decca

Format: deluxe_edition

PartNumber: 028946724828

Release Date: 25-09-2001

Details: Amazon.ca After the pan-global success of her disc of Vivaldi arias, mezzo Cecilia Bartoli is clearly a woman on a mission to rescue the neglected operatic output of otherwise well-known composers. Of the eight arias by Gluck on this disc, six have never been recorded before--and it's likely that the operas they have been taken from will be unknown to all but the most obsessive buffs. Unfortunately, even Bartoli can't quite make a case for all the material here: it sometimes lapses into the excessive passage-work and routine arpeggios which are especially obvious in the first track. But there's also plenty of Gluck at his most inspired, writing with acute sympathy for a woman going mad at the thought of her lover's impending execution (track 3) and screwing dramatic tension to almost Verdian levels with the words "estremi sospiri" (final breaths) in an aria from La clemenza di Tito (track 7). Bartoli is as amazing as ever, blending her trademark intensity and almost unbearably gorgeous lyricism into an explosive mix of vocal fabulousness. She is accompanied with period vigour by the Akademie für Alte Musik. --Warwick Thompson

UPC: 028946724828

EAN: 0028946724828

Model: 028946724828

Binding: audioCD

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood