Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn

CHACONNE CHAN 0788 63:16

It may come as something of a surprise to learn that Alceste appears to be the only play for which Handel composed incidental music. Certainly it is the only one which survives in a form worth performing as a whole. The idea for the collaboration came from the writer Thomas Smollett who had persuaded John Rich of Covent Garden to mount his play, promising the most elaborate scenery ever seen and incidental music by the revered Handel.

In the event things went from bad to worse with all participants blaming the other for the eventual need to abandon the project. Handel’s music, completed in January 1750, was held to be too difficult for the actors to perform, though it is comparable to any of his oratorio of the same period.

This new recording allows us to judge the quality of the work for ourselves and its joyful choruses and florid airs delight throughout. There is no sense of a rushed job or of extensive borrowing from other works to fill it out. Many of the airs remind me of Semele and anyone who enjoys that will certainly like this.

Lucy Crowe, Benjamin Hulett and Andrew Foster-Williams bring youthful sounding voices to solo parts and the Early Opera Company under Christian Curnyn give authentic support with bright attack and well sprung rhythms. BH