Advantages: Fleming is sublime, well sung throughout Disadvantages: Live recording is slightly noticeable in places
a fan of Renee Fleming. Personally I love Fleming's creamy voice and find the liberties she takes with some of the speeds and ornamentation very moving, but I appreciate that a lot of what she does is very unstylistic so Handel purists will no doubt be frustrated. Until I listened to this recording I'd not been a massive Handel fan, but as I listened to each one of Alcina's arias I became more and more of a convert. "Ah, mio cor" becomes the heartbreaking emotional heart of the opera (all 12 minutes of it!), and without a doubt it's highlight, as Alcina bemoans to the Gods the fact that Ruggiero has escaped her, with Fleming's gorgeous sound truly capturing the deep emotions that torment the character. Her dynamic control is fabulous, with beautifully floated top notes and, for me, Fleming truly makes this a real character, with real emotions ...
bubblegum_princess 30.03.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Handel: Alcina
Advantages: Fine musical performance. Disadvantages: Stage director too sharing of his horniness
This 1735 opera by Georg Handel set to libretto (lyric) by Antonio Marchi is based on a side story from Ariosto's tome 'Orlando Furioso'.
THE STORY is of the rescue of the crusading knight Ruggiero from the enchantment of the sorceress Alcina by his fiancee Bradamante and Melisso, their magician/counselor. Ruggiero proves a tough rescue due to the love spell placed on him by Alcina (who has an alarming habit of turning past lovers into animals and other 'artefacts' that litter the island). It also doesn't help that Alcina's sister Morgana falls for Bradamante (in disguised as her own brother Ricciaro) to the indignation of her husband Oronto.
The rescue party is joined by the young boy Oberto, who is looking for his dad (a past lover of Alcina who is now one of the critters on the island), though the boy's big mouth alerts Alcina ...
Advantages: Excellent Quality Disadvantages: Bit chunkier than other makes
This is the old reliable of highlighters they've been around as long as i've been in school and i still use them now that i am working.
They last a fair while although they do tend to dry out quite quickly if you leave the lid off but then they're not designed to be left with the lid off.
They usually come in packs of four and are quite chunky making it difficult to get more than one in a pencil case compared with other highlighters which are much slimmer.
Using the highlighter gives a strong colour that only fades at the very end of its useful life so they seem good value for money and can really help highlight key points especially for exam revision! ...
