Haendel : Serse, HWV 40. Curnyn.

   in Opera Now (Dec, 2013)
Handel’s 1738 opera looks both back and forward – to 17 century Venice, with its tragi-comedy and buffoonery, its fast-moving action and short arias, and to Handel’s own later English oratorios, with their chaste, chordal, string-backed songs, and their pastoral background of dances framing the human drama. Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company capture these contrasts nicely in this punctilious, stylish and tasteful recording – which is to say, I could have used a bit more blood and guts, and a somewhat meatier orchestral sound. Otherwise, it is hard to take exception to a fine recording of a great work, with an ear for both the comedy and pathos of …