Zany, invigorating, splendid – even purists will find Villazón rewarding

Villazón in this repertoire may come as a surprise to some, though surely not to followers of the rapidly rising tenor. He has dipped his toe successfully into Baroque waters before and here he brings that same sense of passionate commitment, while the voice is still supple enough at this stage of his career to, er, handle Handel’s demands. Will it remain so? Domingo has just done Tamerlano, so who knows?

-- Gramophone [5/2009]

HANDEL Arias & • Rolando Villazón (ten); Paul McCreesh, cond; Gabrieli Players (period instruments) • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 8057 (59:27 Text and Translation)

Ariodante: Scherza, infida; Dopo notte. La resurrezione: Cosě la tortorella; Caro figlio! Rodelinda: Fatto inferno . . . Pastorello d’un povero armento. Serse: Frondi tenere e belle . . . Ombra mai fu; Piů che penso; Crude furie. Tamerlano: Ciel e terra; Oh, per me lieto . . . Figlia mia . . . Tu, spietato

& DVD: Villazón and McCreesh interviews; three arias; picture gallery; Villazón discography

I approached this release with several misgivings about Villazón’s ability to do justice to these works, especially the ones transposed down, and wondered if he had sufficiently recovered from the vocal problems he experienced in 2007. I am pleasantly surprised by what I hear on this disc.

Villazón’s best work, as one might expect, is in the arias Handel wrote for the tenor voice. The two arias from La resurrezione are gentle and less demanding than the rest of the recital, and Villazón sings them quite well. The same is true of Grimoaldo’s aria from Rodelinda. The music lies easily on Villazón’s voice and the florid music is performed cleanly and clearly. In the two selections from Tamerlano, Villazón makes the most of the opportunities Handel gives him. He is all defiance in Bajazet’s first-act aria “Ciel e terra,” and the florid music presents no difficulties to him. Even more impressive is Bajazet’s death scene from the end of act III. Villazón is very dramatic in the shifting moods of the scene, and we hear the effects of the poison Bajazet has taken as he nears death.

The arias from Serse and Ariodante were written for mezzo-soprano castrato and are transposed down. Here, the results are a little uneven. Most successful are “Ombra mai fu” and “Piů che penso” from Serse and “Scherza, infida” from Ariodante. All three arias are moderate in tempo and not as elaborate in coloratura, and Villazón sings these very well. In “Crude furie” from Serse, Villazón’s singing is a bit choppy, the coloratura not as smoothly executed. He is surprisingly good in the elaborate music of “Dopo notte” from Ariodante, although the runs in the B section of the aria are not smoothly sung.

Villazón and McCreesh state that they decided to include the transposed arias because there are few outstanding tenor arias in Handel’s operas. However, they need not have limited themselves to the operas; the oratorios would have supplied a wealth of material. McCreesh justifies the transpositions by saying that this was done all the time in Handel’s day. But McCreesh surely knows that Handel never simply transposed an aria from a high to a low voice; he always rewrote the music to make it fit the new vocal range. Still, one cannot argue with success, and in this case the results mostly justify the attempt.

This recital is being sold in two forms: the traditional jewel box containing the CD, and a limited deluxe edition in a hardbound book with a bonus DVD. The material on the bonus DVD is not really worth the extra expense. We get very short interviews with Villazón and McCreesh, performances of three of the arias contained on the CD, a picture gallery containing all of the pictures in the hardbound book, and a Villazón discography.

Purchasers of this recording will be rewarded with some very good singing. Villazón has expressed an interest in starring in a staged production of Tamerlano. I hope he gets the opportunity.

FANFARE: Ron Salemi