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Editorial Reviews

What may seem a straightforward album title, From Monteverdi to Handel turns out to encompass a striking variety of moods and characterizations within the scope of a single disc. Italian contralto Sara Mingardo, whose voice is one of the true wonders of today's Baroque scene, joined with one of her favorite collaborators, conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini, for this program of selections from Baroque operas, cantatas, and monodic madrigals, originally recorded in 2003. It's far more than just a group of showpieces. Musical style rapidly evolved in the century between Monteverdi and Handel, and composers' conceptions of the alto voice, in particular, were varied. Even within the space of nine works here the listener encounters both female and male characters, who may be melancholy, tragic, oracular, erotic, or romantic-comic, and whose vocal material ranges from folkish to spectacular (the latter extremes frame the program, with the Tarquinio Merula's gorgeous, lullaby-like canzonetta "Hor ch'é tempo di morire" [When the time comes to die] opening the proceedings, and some prime Vivaldi arias at the end). Baroque altos may be nurses, lovers, shepherds, or tragic male heroes. And what's really staggering here is that Mingardo is equally powerful in each of these roles. She doesn't just have a gloriously rich voice; she can deploy it in phrases of evanescent quietness, heights of passion, or violent storms. Her partnership with Alessandrini, who sees opera as the central genre of Baroque music and extracts every ounce of drama from these pieces, is one of the great musical collaborations of the moment. Highly recommended as an example of vocal virtuosity or simply as an introduction to the themes of solo vocal music in the seventeenth century. James Manheim, All Music Guide

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