Handel - Amadigi di Gaula
List Price:
Our Price: $23.97
You Save: $6.01 (20%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $20.26 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Composer: George Frideric HandelConductor: Eduardo Lopez Banzo
Orchestra: Al Ayre Espanol
Performer: Maria Riccarda Wesseling
Performer: Elena de la Merced
Performer: Sharon Rostorf-Zamir
Performer: Jordi Domenech
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2008-02-26
Music Label: ambroisie (naive)
Free Music Notes for Handel - Amadigi di Gaula
Free Music Review: Excellent New Version of One of Handel's Most Beautiful Operas
Hit: 5 Stars
Amadigi di Gaula (1715) was the fifth Italian opera that Handel wrote for London, and the last before he took up his duties for the newly formed Royal Academy. Like Rinaldo and Teseo, which preceded it, Amadigi is a "magic opera", a genre that always brought out the best in the composer; like them too it features a love-sick sorceress as a central figure, a character-type he was to return to with equally memorable results in Alcina (1735). (His remaining "magic opera" Orlando has a benevolent male sorceror in place of a malevolent female one.)
Amadigi is an absolutely wonderful piece, with a memorable score of great freshness, invention and youthful vitality - not a single weak number. There are two duets, an onstage death scene (very rare) and a ghost scene, all outstanding. Altho' there are a few puzzling moments in the plot (due to the libretto's compression from a 5-act French original), the story and conflicts are clear and the characters well-drawn. And with essentially only 4 characters and at 2 1/2 hours in length, it's one of Handel's most concise and intimate stage works.
This new recording, only the second so far, is excellent, and certainly fully equal in quality to Marc Minkowski's fine 1989 version (Erato). Perhaps the new one has a slight edge in sheer theatrical excitement, but the difference is marginal. Unlike Minkowski, conductor Eduardo Lopez Banzo has cast a countertenor (rather than a woman) as Dardanus, and this may matter to some listeners. (The role was originally sung by a woman, tho' a castrato took over later.) I should also note that on the new recording one aria, Oriana's sublime Siciliana "Gioie, venite in sen" loses its da capo (no doubt to fit the piece on 2 CDs - Banzo's overall timings run slightly longer than Minkowski's) and Melissa's "Io godo, scherzo e rido" is heard in a different setting from Minkowski's: similar in length and tone, but in duple rather than triple time. There is a good new English translation of the Italian text - Erato reprinted the Italian-English libretto from the 1715 premiere - as well as French and Spanish versions. Excellent sound. A fine achievement all round, strongly recommended.
Classical Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Classical Music CDs
![Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-Eugene-Onegin-Fleming-Vargas-Hvorostovsky-Gergiev-Carsen-Metropolitan-Opera-2007-B000YCLRBA-X.jpg)
Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007]Release date: 2007-12-18; DVD
Best price: $19.54
Price in other shops:
Beethoven Edition: Complete Works (85CD Box Set)Release date: 2007-10-09; Music CD
Best price: $81.24
Price in other shops:
![Vivere Live in Tuscany [DVD/CD] Image](/images/Vivere-Live-in-Tuscany-DVD-CD-B0010YPTGU-X.jpg)
Vivere Live in Tuscany [DVD/ CD]ANDREA BOCELLI - VIVERE, LIVE IN TUSCANY (DVD; Release date: 2008-01-29; DVD
Best price: $15.97
Price in other shops:
![Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Dirty-Harry-Ultimate-Collector-Edition-Blu-ray-B001608QVS-X.jpg)
Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition [Blu-ray]Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-06-03; DVD
Best price: $90.95
Price in other shops:
![Handel: Organ Concertos, Op. 4 [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Handel-Organ-Concertos-Op-4-Hybrid-SACD-B00103E124-X.jpg)
Handel: Organ Concertos, Op. 4 [Hybrid SACD]Release date: 2008-02-12; Music CD
Best price: $15.49
Price in other shops:
Chris Botti - ItaliaRelease date: 2007-09-25; Music CD
Best price: $9.77
Price in other shops:
Andre Rieu in Wonderland (incl bonus CD)Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $15.50
Price in other shops:
Andrea Bocelli - The Best of Andrea Bocelli: VivereRelease date: 2007-10-30; Music CD
Best price: $7.32
Price in other shops:
Mike Oldfield - Music of the SpheresRelease date: 2008-03-25; Music CD
Best price: $11.17
Price in other shops:
Paul Potts - One ChanceRelease date: 2007-09-18; Music CD
Best price: $10.28
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
Handel - Giove in Argo (Jupiter in Argos)Release date: 2007-09-25; Music CD
Best price: $26.19
Price in other shops:
Handel - Fernando / Zazzo, Cangemi, Pizzolato, Abete, Cencic, Adami, Banerjee, Il Complesso Barocco, CurtisRelease date: 2007-02-06; Music CD
Best price: $25.30
Price in other shops:
Philippe Jaroussky - Carestini (The Story of a Castrato)Release date: 2007-11-20; Music CD
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
Handel: Le Cantate per il Cardinal OttoboniRelease date: 2008-02-26; Music CD
Best price: $13.73
Price in other shops:
Atenaide / Piau, Agnew, Laurens, Stutzmann, Genaux, Basso, Ferrari, Modo Antiquo, Sardelli (Vivaldi Edition)Release date: 2007-10-30; Music CD
Best price: $24.86
Price in other shops:
Handel - Floridante / Mijanovic, DiDonato, Invernizzi, Rostorf-Zmir, Priante, Novaro, Il Complesso Barocco, CurtisRelease date: 2007-04-10; Music CD
Best price: $22.96
Price in other shops:
Handel - Ariodante / Hallenberg, Cherici, Vandoni Iorio, Nesi, Lepore, Stains, Prato, Il Compresso Brocco, Curtis, Pascoe (Spoleto Festival 2007)Release date: 2008-02-26; DVD
Best price: $29.71
Price in other shops:
Handel - Semele / Joshua, Summers, Croft, Wallace, EOC, CurnynRelease date: 2008-01-08; Music CD
Best price: $13.99
Price in other shops:
Handel: Riccardo PrimoRelease date: 2008-01-18; Music CD
Best price: $29.82
Price in other shops:
Handel -Tolomeo / Hallenberg, Gauvin, Bonitatibus, Basso, Spagnoli, Il Complesso Barocco, CurtisRelease date: 2008-03-11; Music CD
Best price: $22.96
Price in other shops: