A. Kirchschlager "Con l'ali di costanza" Ariodante Handel

[skidiva1913]

Not only is it bad, she has cut quite a lot of it. Not a role for this voice. She cannot sing it.

[Satirike]

Kirchschlager doesn't have the vocal agility required for this , perhaps? I love Ms. DiDonato's.

But Kirch is good at German repertoire...heard she's bringing down the ROH.

:-]

[Pathetikos]

This is very very bad.

Anne Sofie von Otter is the best Ariodante ever.

[violatione]

agreed

[Gudrun74]

She's FABULOUS, her timbre invites to rest, so natural and colorful.

AK's Handel recital CD is one of my 2 all-time-favourites, it always warms me up when I'm cold.

May sound exaggerated, but true.

PS

This aria must be horrible to sing, right at the beginning of the opera.

BRAVA!!

[compeld2sing]

It IS difficult to sing, but not quite "horrible"

as for whether it is at the beginning of the opera, or sometimes later, __ well, they rehearse all the time, if not together, then individually. They warm up at least on the same day if not less than an hour before performances, so, doesn't matter about "beginning of the opera. But this one IS difficult, either way.

[Gudrun74]

Oh I wanted to say that it is difficult AND in the beginning, not that it is difficult BECAUSE it is in the beginning (-> parataxis, no hypotaxis so to speak).

I wrote it because an "Ariodante" (Ann Murray to be precise) stated once in an interview that she found this fact one of the striking things of this role, that there was not much time to "warm up on stage".

Whether AK feels the same about this and/or finds it horrible to sing, I don't know.

She fortunately (THANK GOD) chose this job.

[compeld2sing]

Is this particular version your favorite (assuming you've heard the other versions)? Or, which one is your favorite?

[Gudrun74]

Speaking of live performances, I've heard so far Murray (too much vibrato for my taste), Kasarova (absolutely not appropriate to sing castrato roles to say it nice), then Kirchschlager (indeed my fav so far), BUT last year I heard DiDonato and think she did as well an excellent job, probably technically better than AK, but don't remember her ornaments in detail.

[Gudrun74]

For me, AK is not a coloratura wonder (or machine gun), but I'm totally fond of her timbre, LOVE her Handel studio recording, which makes me perhaps lose objectivity.

Have you heard other live versions of this aria?

The Minkowski CD says it's a live rec., von Otter is most excellent there!! But I never know how much is remastered in these CDs. Anyhow, I've unfortunately never seen von Otter as Ariodante on stage.

[vitellia]

I was more impressed by AK's Sesto from the Glyndebourne Giulio Cesare. I find her voice a little too feminine for a part like Ariodante, but in that production, Sesto was almost a grade school boy, and of course her singing is so musical and sensitive as usual.

[vitellia]

I found Kasarova's Ariodante (well, actually her rendition of this aria on Youtube) terribly exciting and her coloratura magnificent in that aggressive and atheletic way that Carestini must've excelled in. Oh, and how fun to watch her acting like a puppet as the production required. I wish that production was available on DVD.

[vitellia]

Well, it is actually preceded by a nice arioso, a perfect piece to warm up with before this. I find AK's coloratura totally admirable, but to me it's a crime to omit 2 full measures of semiquavers and makes all these rooms to breathe by deleting even more as she finds convenient, a la Janet Baker and Susan Graham, no matter how wonderful their "Scherza infida" was. I don't think they should've tackled Ariodante at all when Lorrain Hunt and Anne Sofie von Otter sang all the notes and then some!

[Gudrun74]

I think what Kirchschlager has shown to us is that Ariodante is a totally different category from Sesto. Well she was supposed to sing it again last month in Vienna (where she is btw a huge star), but got an acute illness. Was replaced by a certain C. Hulcup, who had already replaced the acute ill Kasarova in Munich. AK said herself in an interview she didn't know before what Ariodante meant, sth I read in a Vivica interview as well. Ariodante on stage must be a killer.

[Gudrun74]

So I'd like to revise my earlier enthusiastic comments. What I still highly adore is AK's wonderful Handel CD (did I mention?), her great Sesto on stage I saw on youtube.

And the adoration for DiDonato who managed to perform a perfect Ariodante on stage. Cheers.