The new recording of Handel’s Alcina from Marc Minkowski, Les musiciens du Louvre and a rather starry line up of soloists is very good and quite interesting.  It’s very complete.  As far as I can tell all the ballet/dance music is included and so are all the Oberto scenes and all his arias.  In all the staged performances I’ve seen (live or video) one or both are usually heavily truncated and I have seen versions where Oberto doesn’t feature at all.

There was one thing that puzzled me a bit.  The relatively large (40 or so) orchestra includes trumpets and bassoons but not horns.  I think this is unusual but maybe someone more knowledgeable might comment?  In any event there’s some really good playing, quite often at very fast tempi in the instrumental sections.  Minkowski also gets a really wide range of colours from the orchestra.   A good example is the low strings in “È gelosia”.

The singing is just plain impressive.  Everybody has a good sense of baroque style, can ornament and can produce spot on precise runs.  They are also pretty distinct sounding which is a big plus on CD.  So Magdalena Kožená, singing Alcina, is a mezzo but quite a bright one while Anna Bonitatibus, singing Ruggiero, has a darker sound.  Liz De Shong is a wonderful Bradamante handling the low tessitura nicely and Erin Morley, singing Morgana, is definitely a soprano.  All the ladies are terrific.  Some highlights might include De Shong’s beautifully controlled and very fast “Vorrei vendicami del perfido cor” and Morley’s lovely “Ama sospira” which also includes some beautiful solo violin playing.  There’s a very pleasing “Verdi prati” from Bonitatibus  and Kožená has several highlights including “Di cor mio quanto tamai” and a blistering “Mi quando tornerai”.

The men are good too.  Oberto is given to a counter-tenor; Alois Mühlbacher, rather than an unbroken voice which works pretty well.  “Barbara io ben lo so” is especially good and justifies inclusion.  Melisso is sung by Alex Rosen and he’s sonorous and rock solid.  Tenor Valerio Contaldo, as Oronte, has excellent control and crisp runs but it’s not a very beautiful voice.  But that’s a minor nit.  There’s not much ensemble work in Alcina but the eight person chorus does the job and the final scene trio “Non e amor” (Alcina, Ruggiero, Bradamante) is done very well.

The recording was made in 2023 at the Auditorium de Bordeaux.  It’s clear and nicely balanced.  Given the quality of the orchestral playing I rather regretted that I was listening to CD quality digital rather than the hi-res version which I imagine might bring out more detail.  It’s available as 3 physical CDs, MP3 and CD quality and 96kHz/24 bit FLAC.  There’s an excellent booklet with lots of information and full texts and translation (English/French).

I’m always going to prefer watching opera to just listening but having a recording as good as this as a reference is definitely useful.

Catalogue information: Pentatone Records PTC5787084