New Arrivals/Restock

Title: Handel: Acis & Galatea
Artist: Handel / Wakim / Boston Early Music Festival Vocal
Label: Cpo Records
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 761203787722
Genre: Classical, Opera/Operetta
Release Date: 2016-01-08
Number of Discs: 2

CPO's previous release with the soloists and ensembles of the Boston Early Music Festival was awarded two prestigious prizes. The recording of Charpentier's opera La Descente d'Orphée aux Enfers and La Couronne de Fleurs received the Grammy Award for the Best Opera Production in February 2015 and recently won the Klassik-Echo 2015, again for the Best Opera Recording of the Year. Prior to this double success, other productions by cpo and BEMF had been nominated for Gramophone Awards. In the category of the Best Opera Production these were Ariadne by Johann Georg Conradi and Thésée and Psyché by Jean-Baptiste Lully. In addition, Thésée and Psyché received nominations in the category honoring Baroque Vocal Works. Now the American ensemble has joined forces with successful soloists like Aaron Sheehan and Teresa Wakim for our production of Handel's opera Acis and Galatea in the version of 1718, which was composed for the landed estate of the Earl of Carnarvon and does not recycle music from the earlier version. Both Acis and Galatea and the cantata Sarei troppo felice heard here represent decisive turning points in Handel's career. The Italian cantata came at the beginning of the one and half decades spent by Handel in the service of various patrons. Acis and Galatea marks the highpoint of this phase and therefore, like the cantata before it, clearly renders recognizable the musical means available to him in the private ensembles of his employers. Moreover, Acis and Galatea contains the musical and textual seeds of the English oratorio, which after 1742 completely supplanted opera compositions.

Tracks:
1.1 Act I: Sinfonia
1.2 Act I: Oh, the Pleasures of the Plain
1.3 Act I: Accompagnato: Ye Verdant Plains
1.4 Act I: Aria: Hush, Ye Pretty Warbling Quire
1.5 Act I: Aria: Where Shall I Seek the Charming Fair
1.6 Act I: Recitative: Stay, Shepherd, Stay
1.7 Act I: Aria: Shepherd, What Art Thou Pursuing
1.8 Act I: Recitative: Lo! Here My Love
1.9 Act I: Aria: Love in Her Eyes Sits Playing
1.10 Act I: Recitative: Oh! Didst Thou Know the Pains of Absent Love
1.11 Act I: Aria: As When the Dove
1.12 Act I: Duet: Happy We!
1.13 Act II: Wretched Lovers
1.14 Act II: Accompagnato: I Rage!
1.15 Act II: Aria: O Ruddier Than the Cherry
1.16 Act II: Recitative: Whither, Fairest, Art Thou Running
1.17 Act II: Aria: Cease to Beauty to Be Suing
2.1 Act II: Aria: Would You Gain the Tender Creature
2.2 Act II: Recitative: His Hideous Love
2.3 Act II: Aria: Love Sounds Th'alarm
2.4 Act II: Aria: Consider, Fond Shepherd
2.5 Act II: Recitative: Cease, Oh Cease, Thou Gentle Youth
2.6 Act II: Trio: The Flocks Shall Leave
2.7 Act II: Accompagnato: Help, Galatea
2.8 Act II: Mourn, All Ye Muses
2.9 Act II: Aria: Must I My Acis Still Bemoan
2.10 Act II: Recitative: 'Tis Done
2.11 Act II: Aria: Heart, the Seat of Soft Delight
2.12 Act II: Galatea, Dry Thy Tears
2.13 Sarei Troppo Felice
2.14 Se Al Pensier Dar Mai Potro
2.15 Clori, Schernita Clori
2.16 Giusto Ciel Se Non Ho Sorte
2.17 Ah! Che Un Cieco Ho Per Guida

Audio Sample:
All soundclips are provided by Tidal and are for illustrative purposes only. For some releases, the tracks listed may not accurately represent the tracks on the physical release.