Roberta Invernizzi - Handel: Lucrezia (1997)

There has been a resurgence of interest in Handel's Italian-language cantatas as recordings have begun to reflect the vast totality of his output rather than a selection of big hits ideologically bound up with British nationhood. The works on this disc date from early in Handel's career, while he was working in Italy; this Italian recording accurately uses the German spelling of the composer's name, Händel, which he would still have been employing at the time. They are youthful works in the best sense of the word: they break formal boundaries, give full voice to passions, and feel gloriously free to push performers to the edge. The last sections of a work like Non sospirar, non piangere, HWV 141, require a soprano with a commanding sense of musical momentum to overcome passages that do not lie easily within anybody's vocal cords, and fortunately Roberta Invernizzi, who has been heard on several fine recordings of rediscovered works from the Italian Baroque, has what it takes. She brings high drama to Lucrezia, HWV 145, the central and most varied of the three cantatas on the disc, and her interaction with the period-instrument group Retablo Barocco is both close and natural. Sample her treatment of the first main melody in the cantata, about a minute in from the beginning of track 10: she reacts strongly to the text without seeming mannered in the least. The cantatas are separated by instrumental sonatas in the Italian style, some of them dating from later in Handel's career. Retablo Barocco's performances are sensitive, and they stay out of Invernizzi's way. This fine Baroque disc is recommended for singers looking to get to know some very tough Italian repertory, and for anyone bitten by the early Handel bug. -- James Manheim