This live recording of Handel’s early, lively, entertaining oratorio La Resurrezione is a delight, and it pushes Christopher Hogwood’s reading (on L’Oiseau-Lyre) into second place. Composed in Rome and first performed in 1708, it presents an angel, Lucifer, Mary Magdalene, Mary Cleophas, and St John in a series of arias. The setting is the second night and following morning after the Crucifixion. Since opera was not permitted in Rome at the time, this religious tale was a mighty substitute, and the music is appropriately dramatic and virtuosic. And so fond was Handel of it that bits of it showed up throughout the rest of his life in other works: Agrippina, Alexander’s Feast, Atalanta, Saul, Rinaldo, and more.
Conductor Marc Minkowski, a true hero of the French Baroque, here proves himself equal to the task in German-Italian Baroque as well. He moves the action along quickly while always making certain that his characters can be understood–particularly Laurent Naouri as Lucifer (who has to reach down to an audible low D). Many of the arias are exactly what we’d find in secular works of the period–metaphor arias about a boat on storm-tossed seas, for example–but many are moving religious meditations. The singers are stunning, from Annick Massis’ agile, tonally lovely angel to Linda Maguire’s and Jennifer Smith’s deeply felt Marys, John Mark Ainsley’s authoritative St John, and Naouri’s infernal Lucifer. Les Musiciens du Louvre couldn’t be better and the sound is excellent–forward and clear. Highly recommended.
