Word: arias
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...cantata is composed of two sets of recitative and aria, following the progression of Ariadne's discovery of her plight and her subsequent expression of anguish and betrayal. Haydn paints Ariadne's psychological itinerary with bold figurations in the pianoforte accompaniment and extensive lyrical passages. The long recitatives are unusually developed musical and dramatic expressions. Wilson's playing demonstrates a sense for the maximization of the evocative possibilities in these passages without transgressing the bounds of bathos. Combining with Watkinson's unfailing vocal agility and expressive gusto, this wrings every ounce of dramatic potential out of Haydn's already amply...
Still, while art should be experimental and exploratory, it should never be intrusive. It shouldn't knock you over the head. The sound waves emanating from these hopeless bells pierce the air. They do not discriminate in choosing the audience for their terrible aria...
Beside the two other principals, Nucci is disappointing as Iago. His voice doesn't seem to provide the kind of deeply treacherous character that the role demands, and, in duets with Pavarotti's passionate warrior, Nucci comes across as an insipid foil rather than a calculating fiend. The tremendous aria Credo in un Dio crudel is unspectacular, and the orchestra actually unseats Nucci in places with its impressive rendering of Verdi's meticulously detailed score. Anthony Rolfe Johnson provides a beautiful Cassio, whose innocent virtue is not equalled by Nucci's sinister duplicity...
...even for Mitchell, who died in 1949 after she was struck by a car on Peachtree Street. She had steadfastly refused to write a sequel, preferring the icy finality of Rhett's, "My dear, I don't give a damn" (Gable threw in the "Frankly"). Yet Scarlett's final aria, "Tomorrow is another day," left the door open...
...they'll talk to this curious listener. Toujours Provence contains an intricate aria of shoptalk from an expert truffle hunter who has even filmed his pig at work, "its snout moving rhythmically back and forth, ears flopping over its eyes, a single-minded earth-moving machine." A similar cameo on the history of pastis ("the milk of Provence") is written with an unpompous sense of discovery and an appropriate amount of thirst...