Sarah Connolly: Heroes and Heroines

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Featuring one of ENO’s most accomplished stars, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, Heroes and Heroines is a new disc of Handel arias recorded with Harry Christophers and The Symphony of Harmony and Invention in May of this year.

Performing with Sarah on this new album is The Sixteen’s acclaimed orchestra The Symphony of Harmony and Invention. In addition to the thrilling and heart-stoppingly beautiful arias on this recording, the orchestra has some ‘solo’ tracks of its own which include ‘The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ (from Solomon).

Tracks:

Sinfonia (Act 3)
Sta nell' Ircana
Mi lusingha il dolce affetto
Sinfonia to Act 2
...
...
Recit & Aria: Scherza infida
Dopo notte
Entree des songes agreables
Verdi prati
Sinfonia (Act 2)
Recit & Aria: Cease, ruler of the day
Where shall I fly

Album Description

Featuring one of ENO's most accomplished stars, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, Heroes and Heroines is a new disc of Handel arias recorded with Harry Christophers and The Symphony of Harmony and Invention in May of this year.

Performing with Sarah on this new album is The Sixteen's acclaimed orchestra The Symphony of Harmony and Invention. In addition to the thrilling and heart-stoppingly beautiful arias on this recording, the orchestra has some `solo' tracks of its own which include `The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' (from Solomon).

Customer Reviews:

Stepping to Stage Front.......2005-05-04

Sarah Connolly may be a well-known name in the UK but in the USA she has too infrequently performed for a wide audience to develop. That will most assuredly change with this release of this CD of arias and recitatives from four of Handel's operas - Alcina, Ariodante, Solomon, and Hercules.

Connolly's warm, rich, pliant mezzo soprano voice is balanced throughout her broad range and she uses it with great intelligence and a true concern for the passion and poignancy of the character portrayed. Her singing is straightforward, not that she does not embellish in the baroque tradition, but she refuses to ornament for the sake of ornamentation. If there is one aspect of Connolly's voice that is worrisome it is the wide vibrato that seeps into her singing when the declamations rise above forte. But that 'problem' is rarely significant on the opera stage; it seems to bolster the drama. Equally at home in trouser roles as well as heroines Connolly once again proves that Handel's works sung with this kind of commitment remain significantly viable contenders for the upper echelon of operas performed today.

Connolly is adroitly accompanied by Henry Christopher and The Symphony of Harmony and Invention, as superb ensemble of players as any in this repertoire! The tracks of instrumental sinfonias are as elegant and lovely as the vocal numbers. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, May 05

Excellent Handel Program.......2005-02-05

This is a wonderfully varied and well-thought-out recital of Handel's music for mezzo-soprano (or the castrato voice, in the case of many of these arias). The orchestral pieces are short but well-chosen, the playing is excellent, and Sarah Connolly is wonderful singer. Not the sublime territory of Lorraine Hunt or David Daniels, but close. Her performance of "Scherza Infida" from Ariodante is one of the best I've heard. The real treat on this recording is the monumental accompanied recitative from Hercules, "Where shall I fly?" a remarkably modern-sounding piece that deconstructs baroque musical conventions to a fare-thee-well. Highly recommended.

Music Review:

Music Review

music review

Music Review

Irreversible Trend

Prelude & Fugue / Chorale / Passacaglia

Sonata 1 in E

Mushroom Jazz, Vol. 5

Rock Me [Import]

The Woods

Ska Para Toujou [Import]

The Best of British One Pound Notes [Import]

Smile [Import]

Stravinsky - Le Rossignol ~ Renard / Dessay, McLaughlin, Urmana, Naouri, Caley, Mikhailov, Conlon

Once More With Feeling: Singles 1996-2004