{"id":8196,"date":"2012-12-04T09:29:30","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T14:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=8196"},"modified":"2012-12-04T09:29:30","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T14:29:30","slug":"daily-album-review-19-in-alan-curtiss-take-on-handel-opera-caesar-comes-sees-and-speeds-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2012\/12\/04\/daily-album-review-19-in-alan-curtiss-take-on-handel-opera-caesar-comes-sees-and-speeds-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily album review 19: In Alan Curtis&#8217;s take on Handel opera Caesar comes, sees and speeds up"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_8197\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8197\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/12\/duo1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8197\" title=\"duo\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/12\/duo1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"382\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8197\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux and soprano Karina Gauvin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It warms my heart every time I see the two great Canadian singers Karina Gauvin and Marie-Nicole Lemieux paired up &#8212; as they are to glorious effect in this new\u00a0 recording by Alan Curtis of the complete <em>Giulio Cesare<\/em> by Geroge Frideric Handel.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/12\/cesare.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8198\" title=\"cesare\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/12\/cesare.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"288\" \/><\/a>Although recorded in Italy last year, this new Na\u00efve release has the feel of the first big period-performance recordings of the mid-1980s, where the music suddenly sounded so much more fleet, fast and textured.<\/p>\n<p>Curtis has kept his period-instrument orchestra Il complesso barocco small and lithe. His singers &#8212; all excellent &#8212; are encouraged to embellish freely, but also move along briskly. Although it&#8217;s still not a short opera, this three-act Italian drama from 1724 moves along briskly.<\/p>\n<p>In the booklet that comes with the three-CD box (a booklet that includes the full libretto), period-performance master Curtis makes the point that we continue to misunderstand Handel&#8217;s tempo markings in order to justify his speediness.<\/p>\n<p>Curtis has also added little bits of instrumental embellishment and cadenzas where appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>And, best of all, we&#8217;re given plenty of opportunity to savour the joys of Gauvin as Cleopatra (her lament, &#8220;Piangero,&#8221; and stormy &#8220;Da tempeste&#8221; in act III are especial treats) and Lemieux as Caesar.<\/p>\n<p>For all the details on this album, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.naive.fr\/oeuvre\/handel-giulio-cesare\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It warms my heart every time I see the two great Canadian singers Karina Gauvin and Marie-Nicole Lemieux paired up &#8212; as they are to glorious effect in this new\u00a0 recording by Alan Curtis of the complete Giulio Cesare by Geroge Frideric Handel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,75,36,43,46,51,52,56,70],"tags":[203,682,853,1425,1514,1847,2099,2337,6467,6471],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/12\/duo11.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-28c","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8196"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}