“Ariodante” by Marc Minkowski

Handel’s opera, “Ariodante” is emotionally dramatic love story with Shakespearean scale.

It is about Ariodante and beautiful princess, Genevra.

They are in love with each other and happily engaged to be married with the blessing of the king, Genevera’s father. But the tragedy turns their happiness into tears when jealous Polinesso who is like the character of Iago in “Othello” set the trap on them.

Polinesso wants Genevra so he uses Genevra’s lady-in-waiting, Dalinda’s affection for him, by having her dressed up as Genevra. And he makes sure Ariodante sees him being let in by the disguised Dalinda as Genevra from the inside of Genevra’s quarter through the secret garden door at night.

On witnessing this, Ariodante was devastated and tried to kill himself by throw himself onto his own sword. He was rescued by his brother, Lurcanio who also witnessed what happened. Lurcanio tells him to live, but Ariodante cries out in despair and afterwards throw himself into sea from cliff. The news of his death breaks the hearts of King and Genevra. Further more, Lurcanio tells the king that his brother died because of his daughter’s infidelity and asks for justice.

This story is set in Scotland where infidelity was automatic death penalty. So Genevra did not get only the news of her beloved fiancé’s death but also the death sentence of herself. Thereafter, she just goes through series of emotional utter hells. And after the long painful torments, she tells her father she’ll die willingly but she cannot bear the thought of her father thinking of her as guilty. She tells him she still loves him even though the hand she’s giving her final kiss is also the hand that signs her death warrant.

Polinesso unleashes hit men to kill the only witness, Dalinda in woods. She was rescued by Ariodante who was moaning his fate after his second failed suicide attempt. Dalinda explains the whole scheme of Polinesso to Ariodante.

Polinesso takes up the challenge of duel by Lurcanio as the defender of Genevra’s honor hoping to get marry her but instead, he gets mortally wounded. When angry Lurcanio asks for more challengers, Ariodante steps up and declares the Genevra’s innocence at everyone’s surprise. Dying Polinesso confesses his crime.

Genevra was in painful torment waiting for her death in her confinement when Ariodante rushed in. She initially thought she’s delirious but finally embraces him with joy.

I wanted to listen to this opera because it contains my favorite aria “Scherza, infida” sang so deeply by Philippe Jaroussky. I also heard that Anne Sofie Von Otter who sang the title role including this aria in this production is very good.

She was superb. Her voice in this recording is much richer than when she sang in DVD, “L’incoronazione di Poppea”. Her “Scherza, infida” is as the deepest as the Jaroussky’s rendition. They each take different takes for this aria but have the same depth of the man who is in ultimate pain.  Her “Dopo Notte, Atra E Funesta” is absolutely delight to listen to.

She has such elegant, sophisticated and emotionally rich expressive beautiful voice. Her singing is technically outstanding and very exciting to listen to. Her voice goes                                                                                 so well with the elegant beauty of Handel’s music and they also share the same psychological depth, the musical sophistication and full of the passionate emotions. After I listen to her, it’s hard to imagine someone else singing this role.

The rest of the singers also sang at the highest quality you can ever hope for.

Initially I thought the jewel-like rich soprano voice of Lynne Dawson who sang Genevra was little dark. But the more I listened, I realized that her voice actually fits into the character so well because this role sings lots of slow painful arias which requires such emotional depth and weight.  Her and Anne’s last duet, “Bramo Aver Mille Vite” was absolutely gorgeous. Like Monteverdi, Handel also writes the most beautiful soprano-mezzo soprano duets.

Soprano, Veronica Cangemi sang naïve Dalinda. This production is about 10 years older than Vivaldi’s “Orlando Furioso”. It might be because of this, her voice sounds younger and much girlish in this opera. Even back then, she sang so beautifully and skillfully with her emotional delicacy.

Richard Croft as Lurcanio also sung so wonderfully. He has the modern tenor voice. His voice has the similar beautiful and romantic texture in popular love songs you might hear on TVs and movies.

When I first heard the voice of Polinesso in this recording, I thought it is sung by a countertenor because it sounded masculine, dramatically dark and evil. So I was surprised to see the woman’s name on the casting credit. Her name is Ewa Podles, mezzo-soprano. She sounds so wonderfully devilish in this production.

I also loved the beautiful and rich orchestration conducted by Marc Minkowski. His orchestration is amazingly sophisticated and his sounds are so elegant. I would definitely follow his other works.

This opera became one of my favorite operas by Handel. Musically, he completes me.

Scherza Infida (Anne Sophie Von Otter)

Dopo Notte, Atra E Funesta (Anne Sofie Von Otter)

Bramo Aver Mille Vite (Lynne Dawson & Anne Sofie Von Otter)

Vezzi, Lusinghe, E Brio (Lynne Dawson)

Dover, Giustizia, Amor (Ewa Podles)

Il Mio Crudel Martoro (Lynne Dawson)

Del Mio Sol Vezzosi Rai (Richard Croft)

Apri Le Luci (Veronica Cangemi)

Con L'Ali Di Constanza (Anne Sofie Von Otter)

Invida Sorte Avara (Denis Sedov)