This is a lovely, lovely
record. Collectors may be familiar with
it already, as it was previously on
L’Oiseau Lyre (425 476-2), and Arianna
cropped up as a coupling for a ‘Nelson
Mass’ on Decca in 1996 (448 983-2).
It is good to see it here at medium
price on the Avie label in a superb,
purple-based presentation and with expert
booklet notes co-authored by H. C. Robbins
Landon and Christopher Hogwood. Let
the playing time of 53 minutes put nobody
off. There are gems and delights during
that fifty minutes to brighten the stoniest
of hearts.
Here we have three
cantatas, separated by the insertion
arias ‘Son pietosa’ and ‘Solo e pensoso’.
The cantata Scena di Berenice
is a magnificent expression of love’s
sorrow. Auger brings a real operatic
feeling to the accompanied recitatives,
and a lovely legato to the aria ‘Non
partir’. She can open out her voice
very impressively, and the vocal cadenzas
are simply superb. Just occasionally
the recording seemed a tad over-reverberant.
Disillusioned love
is the subject of ‘Son pietoso’ where
the orchestra is at its most gentle,
Auger at her most tender. It is Arianna
that is the longest and most famous
work here, though. In the wrong hands
it can seem to have its longueurs, but
there is not a trace of that here in
this anonymous arrangement for voice
and orchestra. The text is almost unbearably
sad, of course, and this comes across
in the most moving of fashions with
Auger’s carefully shaded handling. She
seems remarkably involved at the ‘sighting’
of Theseus and thinks nothing of spitting
out her insults (‘Spergiuro, infido!’).
The beauty of the poem
of ‘Solo e pensoso’ is only matched
by Auger’s gorgeous vocal entry. The
clarinets in the third stanza are a
delightful touch. Auger’s emotions are
remarkably well projected, too, in ‘Miseri
noi’, and completely believable, from
the misery of the initial words to the
juxtaposed anger of the very next words
(‘Misera patria’). The aria (‘Funesto
orror di morte’) demonstrates Auger’s
superb navigation of rapid semiquavers.
Very little to quibble
about here, and a great deal to applaud.
Colin Clarke
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Arleen Auger (soprano) 
