Rudolph Palmer - Handel: Alexander Balus (1998) CD-Rip

"Alexander Balus" has a poor reputation that is at least partly undeserved. Although the plot is adapted from Macabees, the title suggests its basis in history. This makes it an anomaly among Handel’s dramatic oratorios, whose sources are usually Greek myth or the Bible. The title also makes it easy to confuse it with one of the operas. What sticks most in memory is that it’s not supposed to be very good, and for that reason I ignored it for a long time while building my Handel collection. When I finally decided to check it out I was pleasantly surprised. "Balus" is reputed to be one of the weaker oratorios; Dean writes of the librettist’s “fumbling treatment” and affirms that “Act I is perhaps the dullest single act in any of the oratorios.” But I have discovered of late that I’m capable of drawing considerable enjoyment from second-tier Handel. It’s true that nothing much happens in that first act, and that the arias are far too generalized. But the choral movements are stirring, and the showpiece aria “Hark, hark!” by the work’s accidental heroine Cleopatra—one of many earlier Ptolemies to bear the name before the one we recognize--is delightfully embellished with unexpected instrumental ornaments. The second act slowly nudges the plot into motion, and amid the time-marking arias comes one of Handel’s great choruses “O calumny.” The experienced Handel fan will understand when I say that this is the third in a trilogy of moving reflections on human vice, joining the “Envy” chorus from "Saul" and the one on “Jealousy” in "Hercules." And the Third Act, where the plot finally gets going, is packed with some of Handel’s best dramatic inspirations, including an abduction scene that prefigures the one in "Rigoletto," and a series of heart-wrenching airs by Cleopatra after she realizes that she has lost both husband and father. This recording rises to the occasion along with the composer, and makes the final act a powerful emotional experience.