Nathalie Stutzmann, Roy Goodman - Handel: Opera Arias (1992)

The disc from Nathalie Stutzmann ranges promiscuously across a variety of original singers, most of them castratos but also including Durastanti (the poor note in the booklet here neglects to mention singers and doesn't even name the role for which each aria was composed). It begins superbly, leaping in with the magnificent ''Fammi combattere'', sung here in a truly grand manner—as indeed everything is, for Stutzmann, although still under 30, has a commanding style and a tremendous technique allied to a very powerful contralto. It is not unlike the traditional English oratorio contralto, up to a point, but more resonant, clearer, and stronger in attack. Her manner is that of a modern singer, not a self-conscious period stylist, but she has a real feeling for Handel. She is an exceptionally rhythmic singer and produces immense fire in the quick numbers among them the big outburst from Partenope ''Furibondo'', and the first of the two from Floridante, as well as parts of the Mad Scene from Orlando, in which too, she is very successful at conveying, musically, the character's slipping into madness through her softening of the voice. There are also some pathetic arias of a high order, sung with no less distinction: the devastatingly beautiful ''Cara sposa'' from Rinaldo, the second of the Floridante arias (one of Handel's finest siciliana-style pieces), where the hushed tone in the da capo is wonderfully telling, and the Radamisto aria ''Ombra cara'' again, whose hauntingly sung ending concludes the disc very movingly. I thought ''Va tacito'' from Giulio Cesare a shade unsubtle, but the other aria from that work is charmingly rendered, with an appealing swing to the rhythm. Ornamentation is mostly tasteful again, there is some rewriting that goes too far but no serious damage is done. The accompaniments are done with more vigour than refinement, but serve excellently in support: in many ways a thrilling disc. -- Stanley Sadie