Search - Rolando Villazón :: Handel: Arias (Deluxe Limited Edition)

This is the deluxe limited edition package: Includes the complete audio CD as well as a DVD of aria performances, interviews and more all in an elegant hardcover booklet.
Internationally acclaimed tenor Rolando Villazón presents an all-new recording of Italian arias by Handel. Though Villazón is not generally associated with this repertoire, his muscular and virile performances are a thrilling and new way to hear Handel. Paul McCreesh (a noted Handel expert) and the exciting Gabrieli Players join Villazón giving the listener both an authentic period performance as well as a new twist on familiar Handel. To suit his voice, Villazón performs not only tenor arias, but also transposed mezzo arias a practice familiar to Handel. This is a unique and wonderfully thrilling album completely unlike Villazón s previous recordings.

For those who associate Rolando Villazón with the lyric tenor heroes of 19th-century operas and who doesn t? the notion of him singing Handel may come as a bit of a shock. Since when has the 36-year-old Mexican been interested in early 18th-century music? I can tell you ex-actly , he replies. I was in Paris, at the start of my career, and I bought a CD of Cecilia Bartoli singing Vivaldi. I became obsessed by it. So did my wife. Any excuse if we had something to celebrate, or needed cheering up and we would listen to it over and over again. Of course, that was BC: before children! Ever since then I have sought out recordings of Baroque music. And I dreamed of singing it myself, although I knew that the way I was singing at that time didn t suit this repertoire.
His chance came when he met the conductor and harpsichordist Emmanuelle Haïm. She per-suaded him to make a CD of Monteverdi. And I must say that it was one of the most spiritually fulfilling experiences of my career. Another door opened in my inner life. I loved the discovery of new colours in my voice, of learning how to use the words, of searching for the right edition. It was around this time that I also said to myself: I can do lieder . But that s another subject!
Having convinced himself that he could sing Baroque arias, and there was no need to worry what people thought , Villazón s next venture into that repertoire seemed obvious. With the 250th anniversary of George Frideric Handel s death on the horizon (the great German-English composer died in 1759), why not record some of the greatest arias from Handel s opere serie? Nevertheless it was a bold choice. Until he made this recording he had sung barely a note of Handel in public.
Actually, I once sang Ombra mai fu , though I can t remember where or when. And I probably tried to sing it like Caruso or Corelli used to. Don t get me wrong: of course I love what those legendary tenors did. But what I wanted to do with this new album was to get closer to the Ba-roque tenor s music rather than just give a lyric tenor s interpretation of it.
What Villazón did want to do was engage fully musically, stylistically and philosophically with the world of period-instrument Baroque performance. Paul McCreesh, whose Gabrieli Players are at the forefront of Britain s period-instrument movement, was contacted and agreed to work on the project.
Why not? the conductor says. In a sense this marks the coming-of-age of the Baroque music revival. Even great Romantic tenors want to sing it now! Of course, the convention is for lighter voices to do this repertoire. But once I had some preliminary rehearsals with Rolando, I realized that he has a fantastic instrument for Baroque music. His voice has great ping ; it is very finely tuned. And Rolando is also very open to stylistic suggestions. He is acutely aware that singing Handel with Puccini-like swoops and portamenti isn t going to work.
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