Franco Fagioli, Il Pomo d'Oro & Maxim Emelyanychev - Handel: Serse (2018) [Hi-Res]

Franco Fagioli’s Baroque sensibilities shine through in his captivating portrayal of Handel’s Persian monarch

With genuine and irresistible charisma, Argentinian countertenor Franco Fagioli opens up a Baroque soundworld every time he sings Handel. This is unquestionably true of his new recording of Serse, in which he stars as the eponymous and eccentric Persian king. Scheduled for release by Deutsche Grammophon on 2 November, this sweeping operatic journey will transport listeners beyond time and space. Fagioli is one of the very few countertenors to have tackled the role of Serse, and his virtuosity not only gives this recording particular artistic significance, but also brings fresh meaning to the work as a whole. In company with Italian Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro and fellow cast members Francesca Aspromonte, Inga Kalna, Vivica Genaux, Marianna Pizzolato, Biagio Pizzuti and Andreas Wolf, Fagioli reveals many new facets of this engaging and entertaining opera.

Franco Fagioli has all the intensity and credibility to make him the perfect guide for listeners exploring the musical world of the eighteenth century. As the drama of Serse unfolds, they will discover an opera brimming with both moving and funny moments, and one which reveals the modernity of Handel, who here travels far beyond the conventional musical confines of eighteenth-century opera seria. In this new recording for the Yellow Label, Fagioli and the rest of the cast – Francesca Aspromonte, Inga Kalna, Vivica Genaux, Marianna Pizzolato, Biagio Pizzuti and Andreas Wolf – are accompanied by the renowned period ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, who give the singers every opportunity to display their vocal talents to the full.

The artists’ delight in historically informed performance practice shines like a beacon from start to finish. In the course of the three-hour production Fagioli brings all the many and varied aspects of the intriguing character of Serse (Xerxes) musically to life. Listeners will share his pain and feel for him as he falls for Romilda, his emotions alternating between loneliness, anger and love. The aria “Ombra mai fu”, with which the king serenades a much-loved plane tree in the opening scene with, is now one of the best-known pieces ever written by Handel. “I did my best to imagine exactly what Serse might have been feeling as he sat beneath the tree, and then tried to bring those feelings into my performance of the aria,” explains Fagioli. The role is one of two that Handel wrote for the celebrated Italian castrato Caffarelli (the other being the title role in Faramondo), an artist whose repertoire the Argentinian countertenor has explored to great acclaim both on stage and in the studio: as well as starring as Farnaspe in the Decca recording of Pergolesi’s Adriano in Siria, he has also released the solo recital album Arias for Caffarelli.

This new recording from Franco Fagioli and Il Pomo d’Oro is a wholehearted celebration of Serse’s many musical delights. Their performance, full of emotional complexity and expressive beauty, is a wonderful gift to the music world.