Gerald Finley Cries for Vengeance as Timotheus
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- Опубліковано 4 лют 2025
- Disclaimer - I own nothing
Alexander - Michael Schade
Handel: Alexander's Feast: Part 2: "Hark! The horrid sound... Revenge Timotheus Cries" Dir. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Melk, 2001
My Dear MANOLI.Another interesting subject you bring along with this middle voice.
Haendel with a libretto from Hamilton created this choral ensemble of concertos that originally were three.They were presented in the beginning of the eighteenth century at Covent Garden for the premiere,and had been composed to honour the day of Santa Cecilia.
This extract of Timotheus Revenge we could say has two Allegros and an Adagio.Well when one is in a mood of revenge one is also euphoric.
The whole thing tells us about the conquest of the Persian city of Persepolis by Alexander the Great in company of his mistress Thais.In the middle of the celebration Timotheus appears with his lyre to make Alexander go mad about the great loss of greek soldiers till he decides to burn the whole city.It was very appreciated till the extent that Haendel decided if it wouldn't be better to write these choral works instead of Óperas.
NOW,the big issue here.The middle voices..La media voce.
I think they are useful.We are accustomed to it in the case of mezzo sopranos..But we should encourage to have a larger variety and to have more parts for them.I don't know if that would help in you issue with Mozart.But it would help me with the draught of good tenors,for example.Aetion talked the other day about the baritenore.For me ,given that there are still good baritones and basses it would relieve me of having more lousy tenors around like laureated Kauffman.
The thing is that to be effective they need long tessituras,but if so they would solve lots of problems.
This Finley guy mainly here acts like a baritone but he sure can give his low notes.He was well selected thus although he sings Bel Canto he s also an expert in Bach ,Schumann,Mozart ,Haendel...His german like scales are wonderful.Maybe guys like him is what we need in this new world without important tenors or even sopranos.The middle voices.
I was so happy when Nikolaus Harnoncourt added Mr Finley to his regular stable of singers. A decent bass-baritone with a good imagination and sense of drama is worth his weight in gold, and Finley is certainly that. Alexander's Feast is not performed frequently, and that's a shame, as the music and 'book' are both superlative. Perhaps the audiences that only know Händel from their local choral society's annual Messiah renditions are disconcerted by an extended cantata on a classical, rather than explicitly Christian, subject. If that's the reason then they are doing themselves a disservice, though since Harnoncourt went to his reward nine years ago there has been no Händel conductor of any worth, and particularly not in this work, which does not 'play itself'. At least the Concentus Musicus of Vienna are still going strong; and in fact just recently revived this work in their concerts. Let's hope videos thereof will soon be available. Thank you, Manoli!
🎉 Marvellous
Great rendition!
Thank you, dear Manoli.
The other day you were talking about the figure of the baritenore.Well here we have a bass baritone.I enjoy these kind of middle voices.
I love this aria!!! I sang it over 50 years ago when I was in high school, and won a vocal competition with it. So much fun to sing. If you haven't sung this one yet, Manoli, you should definitely do so! You would sound great on it, and I guarantee you'd love singing it! Thanks for posting this!! 👍
@@artdanks4846 oh trust me it is on my shortlist to do next!!! Magnificent!
@manolis.799 So glad to hear that!!! Another great one that's kind of similar to this (although harder to locate the score) is "Fury, with Red Sparkling Eyes" (although I CAN'T remember which oratorio it's from!) But if you can locate it, it's another winner of an aria!! 😁👍
I found it! It's from "Alexander Balus". Here is a YT link, but it is with a counter-tenor. ua-cam.com/video/GUtOw6izl4A/v-deo.htmlsi=RdxiGbBjC5agr7xI Most recordings are for mezzo, but I remember that when I sang it (back in the Dark Ages), the score I used was in the bass clef, but even then (the 1970s) the music was already falling apart, since it was so old, and long out of print! So hard telling if the music can be found, or if it's written in bass or treble clef! But it is well suited for a baritone voice. If you find it, you should give it a try too. 👍
@@artdanks4846 thank you sir!
@@manolis.799 Also, I can't remember... have you also sung "Presti omai" from Giulio Cesare? It would also be well suited to your voice!
Two, fine Canadian exports lol