“Floridante” (Handel) by Alan Curtis

 Alan Curtis’ orchestration in this production is much livelier and attentive than his orchestration in Handel’s “Tolomeo”. And the sound quality is far better than his Handel’s “Alcina” and Vivaldi’s “Ercole su’l Termodonte”, which had the dull knife-like sounds. His sounds are much vibrant especially in the upbeat portions of the opera even though it can be still stagnant in slower arias. But this is the first time I actually get some enjoyment from his orchestration.

It is still puzzling to me the fact that there are such big differences in the sound quality between each production even though they are all performed by the same conductor and the same ensemble, Il Complesso Barocoo during the same period.

The selection of the singers in this production is high level. Handel wrote very beautiful arias and duets for this opera, but unfortunately this production is far from such perfection of his music. Partly because of the orchestration and the singers’ quality.

Contralto, Marijana Mijanovic who sung the title role has elegant tall slender stature, which also reflects in her voice characteristics. The texture of her voice is like the very beautiful tenor voice wrapped around with the very beautiful fine feminine mezzo-soprano voice with certain amount of masculine darker hue, which is well suited for both female and male roles.  

So the voice like hers should be well suited for the Handel’s tenderhearted hero like Floridante. This role mainly sings slow deep emotional ballad type arias. She sounded very good on the surface but the underneath, her singing sounded rather monotone and failed to convey the deep emotions of the character well enough. Even though I think she did her best in this role and I’m very fond of her as singer.

Exquisite mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonate sung passionate protagonist, Elmira. She always sings Handel excellently. She’s one of these singers who are just naturally rich in singing expressions.  She is without doubt, one of the current top opera singers.

Soprano, Sharon Rostorf-Zamir sung Rossane very well with beautiful sweet voice. This is the girl who sings the exhilaration of being in love. So Handel wrote very light melodic sensual arias for this role. I love light lyrical melodic songs generally, so naturally, the favorite arias below I listed are tend to be her arias.

Soprano, Roberta Invernizzi as Timante also sung beautifully but her voice is little sharp and less full for my taste. I listened to several arias and duet by her before but she had weakness in expression so her singing has never appealed to me.

Often in Handel’s operas, the two sets of lovers are pictured in opposite contrast. In this opera, musically, he distinguishes this strongly.

Floridante and Elmira go through all the pain and sufferings so their voices are lower and the music for their arias and duet are either deeply sentimental for Floridante or highly emotionally charged for Almira. 

Rossane and Timante fall in love during the opera so they are both sung by soprano (ranged) singers and the music for their arias and duet are light, sensual and intoxicating.

Alma Mia (Marijana Mijanovic)

Ma Pria Vedrò Le Stelle (Joyce DiDonate)

Sospiro, È Vero (Sharon Rostorf-Zamir)

Fuor Di Periglio (Sharon Rostorf-Zamir & Roberta Invernizzi)

Ma Un Dolce Mio Pensi (Sharon Rostorf-Zamir)

Vivere Per Penare (Joyce DiDonate)

Ah Mia Cara (Joyce DiDonate & Marijana Mijanovic)

Sventurato, Godi, O Core (Marijana Mijanovic)