Georg Frederick Handel - Tamerlano (Opera in 3 Acts)

Georg Frederick HANDEL (1685-1739)

Tamerlano HWV 18

Dramma per musica in tre atti

Libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym

Henri Ledroit (Tamerlano)

John Elwes (Bajazet)

Miecke van der Sluis (Asteria)

Rene Jacobs (Andronico)

Isabelle Poulenard (Irene)

Gregor Reinhart (Leone)

La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy

On Baroque Instruments

Jean-Claude Malgoire

Recorded in 1985. Released in 1997

Review:

This is a vinyl recording of the mid-1980’s of Handel’s great opera ‘Tamerlano’, conducted by French conductor Jean-Claude Malgoire. Sony has since reissued this in CD, and lastly in 2009 as part of the series ‘Sony Opera House’.

Though performed in the 1980’s, this recording sounds surprisingly ‘modern’, in that the style is fully baroque, with lean instrumentation and the singers all sang in the period style. Malgoire’s baroque ensemble Chambre du Roy provided very stylish accompaniment, especially in the low viol section, for basso continuo in several major arias. The most recommendable part is in the pacing of the drama. Malgoire gave all the big arias their full ‘dramatic pace’. Hence you would not find sudden rushing in and out, but the characters have sufficient space to ‘voice out’ their respective plights without dragging the music or truncating the drama.

The major drawback of this recording is that it could not be claimed to be ‘complete’ as in other more commonly known ones like the Moriarty 1970 recording, or the Trevor Pinnock early 1990 DVD version. The final Act duet, as was the case in the Gardiner recording, was sung by Ledroit’s Tamerlano and Jacobs’ Andronico is often omitted in modern recordings. The work concludes with the sumptuous chorus of the soloists on stage.

Even so, musically this one ranks well ahead of the other two in that the entire ensemble held a firmer grip on the musical drama and all were able to deliver the tragic unfolding of events, culminating in a most affecting death scene of the tenor role Bajazet, sung outstandingly by British tenor John Elwes. Elwes is the best Bajazet since Alexander B. Young. While owning a deep tenor voice (not baritone, as in the more recent Petrou version), he was able to keep vibrato to a bare minimum, and the vocal acting is a high water mark of Handel tenor singing, very difficult to surpass.

His daughter Asteria sung by Dutch soprano Mieke van der Sluis is another baroque specialist. The timbre is not particular juicy, but she is technically assured and dramatically very effective in her deliverance of Asteria’s plight. The only unhappy surprise in the cast, and not a fault of the singer, is the role of Irene sung in soprano by the reknowned French soprano Isabelle Poulenard. The great vocal surprise is bass Gregory Reinhart, owning a colourful deep bass that almost upstaged the entire cast in the few arias, and certainly so in the Act 1 aria.

This recording may be worth the money alone for the performance in the title role by the legendary baritone-turned countertenor Henri Ledroit, who passed away only a few years after this recording in 1988. Ledroit, owning a full-throttled alto counter-tenor voice, his Tamerlano might have equally acquitted himself with the more melodious role of Andronico, sung here by Belgian Counter-tenor/conductor Rene Jacobs. Jacobs’ drier and more whitish timbre would have equally fitted Tamerlano, with his habitual scoopings fully suited to depict the psychopath’s whims. As it is, this Andronico is not a particularly colourful or outstanding character. The casting here of these two characters are basically dramatic rather than musical, and notwithstanding this minor controversy, this is a fore-front ranking recording of Handel’s greatest opera. One could only wish that the cut parts were there. Unreservedly recommended.