Emoke Barath (Soprano)
Artaserse
Philippe Jaroussky (Conductor)
Erato 0190296370625
Full Price
The Review
I am a sucker for Handel’s operas. Of all the composers from the first half of the 18th century he managed to combine dramatic force with engaging and memorable melody best.
The Hungarian soprano based in France, Emoke Barath, has just that combination of ferocity and elegant precision that shows off these extracts to advantage. At 36 she is coming into her prime, with a mezzo timbre that suggests a wider range than is perhaps always comfortable yet but is bound to ripen further.
This album, mainly concentrating on the cross-dressing arias that enabled opera of the time to muddle its gender politics without following historical reality, is a catalogue of Handel’s work well suited to the drama and agility of Barath’s voice. Even so, she is still in the very promising rather than complete package category. There are parts of her mezzo range that have their matt spots. She sometimes covers uncertain notes with unwelcome vibrato and as her coloratura races up and down, the support is marginally uneven. I’m not sure if she is over-thinking her sound or if she has not yet quite decided what the unique character of her voice should be. Too often I feel as if I am listening to her at an audition and marking her out of 20, rather than relaxing to let her overcome me with her artistry in the music.
The 11 numbers selected include some where everything is just right, however. Qual farfalletta gira a quel lume from Partenope, is impeccably paced and balanced. Cleopatra’s Se pieta di me non senti, giusto ciel from Giulio Cesare In Egitto is regal and yet still vulnerably poignant. When the same character lets rip in Da tempesta il legno infranto, Barath matches the violins with that precision that can make baroque opera so astonishing. The Artaserse ensemble is always attentive and Philippe Jaroussky directs them with all the sympathy of the great singer he is for an emerging colleague.
Once or twice the microphones have picked up his breathing – rather as TV cameras pick up a football manager kicking an imaginary ball in tandem with his striker. There are a handful of places, too, where the producer has upset the balance by bringing Barath too close for comfort to the listener’s ear in relation to the instruments. This is corrected for most of the tracks, so it does not detract fatally. One way and another, though, a little more attention to detail in Erato’s mixing room would have been welcome. From Barath’s point of view, if she has a way to go before she utterly tops the bill, this is not a bad rung on the ladder and anyway, Handel never lets us down.
SM