Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Inexorable Amour – Cantate Virtuose
Il delirio amoroso HWV99
Sans y penser HWV 155
Un’alma inamorata HWV 173
Crudel tiranno amor HWV 97
Marie Lys (soprano)
Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal/Gaétan Jarry
rec. 2025, Salle des Croisades, Château de Versailles, France
Synopsis in French and English only
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS168 [73]
This collection of Handel’s early cantatas includes the only music that Handel ever wrote in French. Entitled Sans y penser, it exists in manuscript copies only in a few collections. It was probably composed in 1707 with the first performance possibly being sung by Margherita Durasanti. One contemporary account of Durasanti described her as being “coarse and masculine”, but that is certainly not what we encounter in Marie Lys’ scintillating performance on this CD. Lys has a wide-ranging soprano of some brilliance and with a definite personality in the voice. Her soprano soars and glides through coloratura with ease and she has a most impressive degree of breath control.
The longest work on this disc is the 1707 cantata Il delirio amoroso which was composed around the same time as Handel’s first oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth. Here the warmth of Lys’ middle and lower registers is highlighted. The second aria of this cantata features some lovely solo obbligato work by the cellist as it weaves in and around the soloist. Yet here it seems that at times the soprano sounds almost too brightly lit by the recording.
Un’alma inamorata features the voice with string orchestra and continuo. Here Lys commands a wide range of expression and her voice sounds especially full-toned. Once again the sense that the voice is just too closely recorded intrudes on the listener.
The final work on the disc comes from a much later period where Handel had advanced in his compositional style. Crudel tiranno amor was likely composed for a London concert in 1721, again possibly for the soprano Margherita Durasanti. This cantata shows a composer who had achieved a greater proficiency of ability to convey emotion and also technical achievement. Handel would eventually re-use all three arias from it in his opera Il Pastor Fido, albeit somewhat revised. Here Lys conjures up 16 minutes of vocal enchantment with beguiling tone and complete assurance in sailing through the difficult passagework. This is certainly a fitting conclusion to this disc.
Throughout Gaétan Jarry provides a lively and elegant cushion of sound from the excellent Orchestra of the Opéra Royal de Versailles. Aside from the too close spotlight on the soloist, the engineers have captured the orchestra clearly and vividly, with some atmosphere within in a realistic acoustical space. It is only the voice that sounds somewhat apart from the orchestra.
On turning to a rival recording of Il delirio amoroso, one finds a rather different approach can be more rewarding overall (review). Magdalena Kožená’s recording for DG/Archiv with Mark Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre has been around for about 26 years now and it still remains a preferred choice where this work is concerned. Mme Kožená’s timbre is full and warm with a ravishing multitude of hues from which she can draw in order to paint a more nuanced vocal canvas. This leaves Mme Lys sounding just slightly monochromatic in comparison. In addition, Marc Minkowski’s leadership has decidedly more energy and point than Jarry’s does. On the older recording, Handel’s music registers with greater impact overall. The Archiv engineers have also done a better job in the placing Kožená’s voice within a naturally spacious sound field, one in which the orchestra seems to dwell in the same acoustic space as the soloist, rather than existing in a separate one as in the Versailles recording.
Yet let that one caveat not deter one from hearing Marie Lys achieve the heights in this repertoire which suits her voice perfectly. There is still plenty to enjoy in this vivid new recording.
Mike Parr
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