GEORG FREDERIC HANDEL

Faramondo

 

Max Emanuel Cencic, Philippe Jaroussky, Sophie Karthäuser, Marina de Liso, Xavier Sabata, Terry Wey, In-Sung Sin, Fulvio Bettini

Choeur de la Radio Suisse, Lugano I Barocchisti / Diego Fasolis

 

Handel’s opera Faramondo (Pharamond), still rarely performed, is set in 5th century France. The title role, a mythical king, is taken by Zagreb-born countenor Max Emanuel Cencic, an alumnus of the Vienna Boys’ Choir, who took a starring role in Virgin Classics’ recent DVD of Landi’s Sant’Alessio and in September 2007 released a thrilling recital of virtuoso Rossini arias. On stage he has performed a number of Handel operas: Giulio Cesare, Tamerlano, Fernando and Serse (written shortly after Faramondo). The other star countertenor on this recording is Philippe Jaroussky, whose Virgin Classics album Carestini – The Story of a Castrato included arias by Handel and who was recently named Singer of the Year in Germany’s Echo Klassik awards.

 

This production of Faramondo is probably unique in recording history – and maybe also in the performing history of Handel’s operas since the 18th century. It finally gives us a complete recording of a Handel opera with men singing all the male characters cast for singers with high voices: Phillippe Jaroussky  in the soprano role of Faramondo’s son, Adolfo; Xavier Sabata in the dramatic alto role of the vicious King Gernando, and Max Emanuel Cencic in the mezzo soprano role of Faramondo.  At the opera’s first performances in London in 1738, Faramondo was sung by the star castrato Caffarelli, but the other two parts were sung by women dressed as men, since Handel could not afford to pay for additional castrati, who were the highest-paid stars of the day. Since then, women have generally been engaged to sing the highest male roles in Handel operas, with countertenors often being allocated the characters with music in the alto range.

 

As with female singers, there were alto, mezzo soprano and soprano castrati. Until recently, countertenors have tended to take the lower-lying roles that Handel and other Baroque composers wrote for castrati. Now, a growing number of countertenors also sing in the mezzo and soprano ranges. Cencic, Jaroussky and Sabata are part of this generation of ‘operatic countertenors’ who can provide the vocal agility and range of colour which have perhaps been more readily associated with the female voice.

 

Beyond the countertenors, there are talented young singers in all the other roles: the Belgian soprano Sophie Karthäuser (already featured in the Virgin Classics catalogue in Haydn’s Creation with William Christie), who has a pure, but vibrant sound; two Italians – powerful mezzo Marina de Liso and expressive bass-baritone Fulvio Bettini; In-Sung Sim from South Korea, a basso profundo who can sing superb coloratura and Swiss-born Terry Wey, another young countertenor (he is just 23) and also a former member of the Vienna Boys’ Choir, who takes the role of Childerico, sung in Handel’s time by a boy treble.

 

Diego Fasoli, also from Switzerland, conducts his orchestra I Barocchisti. Le Monde, describing their Handel, has written of “ a tonal subtlety and a palette of emotional colour that compel admiration ... While being lively and playful, it is never aggressive or superficial.”

 

Virgin Classics 3cds 2166112