January 17, 1998

HANDEL: Arias

Bryn Terfel; Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Mackerras. Texts & translations. DG 453480

Charles Mackerras expertly paces Terfel's all-Handel disc of twenty opera and oratorio arias, also contributing ornamentation and cadenzas for several of them. Terfel is a vocally handsome, assured Handelian throughout, his beautiful legato shaping superb accounts of "Verdi prati" and "Ombra mai fu." It's a pity that so vivid a singing actor has to take on these roles in bits and pieces. What a splendid Polyphemus he would make in a complete Acis and Galatea, or Simon in Judas Maccabaeus!

- F.P.D.