Emma Kirkby, The Brandenburg Consort, Roy Goodman - Handel: Opera Arias and Overtures, Vol. 2 (2000)

Yes indeed, the Divine Miss Em has still got it. It was the late 1970s when Emma Kirkby first became the leading diva of the early-music revival. More than 20 years on, as this disc of mostly lesser-known Handel treats demonstrates--a follow-up to volume I--Kirkby remains a spectacular Handel singer. The pure tone, control over vibrato, astonishing agility, and immaculate delivery that made her world famous are all still in place; if anything, two decades of experience have made her even more brave and imaginative in the way she embellishes a da capo aria. It must be said that Kirkby also retains a somewhat restricted palette of vocal color. As Ted Perry of Hyperion Records has put it, "She sounds like a nice person, and she is." This means, of course, that she has never sounded entirely convincing in portraying intense grief, fear, or fury. So her big soliloquy-aria from Alcina, "Ah, Ruggiero! / Ombre pallide," in which the eponymous sorceress tries desperately to conjure spirits, isn't entirely persuasive dramatically, however skillfully Kirkby sings it. The other arias are much better suited to her gifts, however: the melancholy in "Son qual stanco" from Arianna in Creta, the tender pleas of "Caro padre" from Ezio, and the dialogue with solo oboe from Berenice are all beautifully rendered. The beginning and end of the disc are the real treats, though. Kirkby's virtuosity in "Scherza in mar" from Lotario is positively dizzying, and her aria from Deidamia is both thrilling and emotionally affecting. -- Matthew Westphal