Margherita Durastanti News
singer
Commemorations 2024 (Death: Margherita Durastanti)
- soprano
- Republic of Venice
- opera singer
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2024-03-28
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2022-07-25 11:00:00
Sit back and enjoy: London Early Opera's engagingly virtuosic performance of Handel's pasticcio, Caio Fabbricio
[…] whilst cutting some terrific passagework. Whilst Pirro has fallen in love with Sestia, his betrothed is actually Bircenna, though she gets fewer arias. Hannah Poulsom had a fine way with the lyrical, and melodic yet elaborate music of her arias. poised in Act One and here perhaps the closest she gets to being angry. She is gentle and stylish in Act Two, and in a similar spirit in Act Three. The role was written for Margherita Durastanti who had first sung with Handel back on Italy in 1707, and you get the impression he was writing to her strengths and she never gets the vivid revenge aria that you feel she needs.The third man, Turio, is Helen Charlston. Charlston brings great style to Turio's two arias, and a relish for the text. In his one aria, Morgan Pearse manages to bring great character and dignity. The final role is Cinea, not […]
2021-05-31 09:04:34
Handel the young Italian: Ensemble Marsyas in chamber music and duets from the composer's early years
[…] the first movement. The first Allegro went with something of a swing whilst there was an expressive lyricism to the Siciliana, with a delightful sense of character in the final movement. The last work on the programme featured all the performers on stage for the first time, violins and singers, plus the three continuo instruments. Amarilli Vezzosa (Il Duello Amoroso) BWV 82 was written for Rome in 1708 with the soprano part sung by Margherita Durastanti, who would sing a lot for Handel in London, and the alto part sung by the castrato Pasqualino (who also sang in the premiere of Handel's La resurrezione the same year). The work is a somewhat curious one, neither character is very sympathetic, the flirtily seductive Amarillis (Louise Alder) seems to have once pledged herself to Daliso (Christopher Lowrey) but changed her mind. He mopingly encounters her in a wood and decides to force […]
2021-04-12 08:40:08
Towards Perfection: the idea of an ideal version of an opera has not always played out in history, with composers being surprisingly willing to rewrite works to suit circumstances
[…] original conceptions and dramaturgy with the sole end of making the piece work for the current singers and the current audience. The result is that we tend to ignore Handel's revisions, even when they are interesting. Handel: Giulio Cesare - Catherine Hopper (Cornelia), Heather Lowe (Sesto) - Opera North 2019 (Photo Alastair Muir) Handel's Giulio Cesare premiered in 1724, with the role of Sesto played by a soprano en travestie (Margherita Durastanti), but when Handel revived the work a year later he needed to find a role for the major Italian tenor Francesco Borosini (who would create the role of Bajazet in Tamerlano for Handel that same year) and so Handel made significant alterations to the role of Sesto, retaining one aria unchanged, altering another and providing three new tenor arias. Borosini would sing in 10 performances of the opera, and Handel's revivals in 1730 and […]
2019-04-12 07:30:56
'Costly Canaries': Mr Handel's Search for Super-Stars at the London Handel Festival
Anna Maria Strada by John Verelst (circa 1732) Costly Canaries': Mr Handel's Search for Super-Stars - Handel, Porta, Vivaldi, Bononcini, Steffani; Hannah Poulsom, Marie Elliott, Anna Gorbachyova-Ogilvie, London Early Opera, Bridget Cunningham; London Handel Festival at St George's Church, Hanover Square Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 5 February 2019 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½) An engaging narrative woven round three of Handel's divas, and some terrific musicThe theme of this year's London Handel Festival is Handel's Divas!, and at St George's Church, Hanover Square last night (11 April 2019) Bridget Cunningham and London Early Opera explored Handel's relationship with three of his divas. Narrated by Lars Tharp, 'Costly Canaries': Mr Handel's Search for Super-Stars introduced us to Margherita Durastanti, sung by Hannah Poulsom, Anastasia Robinson, sung by Marie Elliott and Anna Maria Strada del Po, sung by Anna Gorbachyova-Ogilvie, with music from Handel's Agrippina, Radamisto Muzio […]
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