Opera

The French mezzo-soprano Héloïse Mas, laureate of the latest Queen Elisabeth Competition for singing in 2018 is accompanied by a high-powered team comprising the London Handel Orchestra and Laurence Cummings – currently one of the most highly reputed conductors for this repertory – in a magnificent programme of Handel arias. The main thread of these "Anachronistic Hearts" is woman: woman betrayed, abandoned, abused, desired, her emotions passing from joy to doubt, then from sadness to rage, resulting in vengeance, even death. From the 18th century to the present day, powerful and mysterious women are always to be found at the heart of opera. However, their power was originally quite anachronistic: in a world ordered by men, the voices of women dominated the stage, often in male operatic roles, and provided proof for many critics that the world of opera was a world upside down. And the submission of women to men had been reversed not only on stage but also by their frequent responsibilities as stage directors and managers of opera houses. They thus provoked at the time a mix of admiration and moral panic concerning the impact of these "outlaws" on impressionable young women (and men). Amongst all the great composers of opera, Handel was without question one of the most convincing with regard to the dramatisation of these characters. From Poppea to Dejanira, from Alcina to Ariodante – not forgetting Lucretia broken by rape, these historic representations of women also enable them to be more readily projected into our contemporary epoch. And if one removes the original context (as was often the case in the 18th century), they open up inexhaustible horizons for forming a new framework, the emotional and visual dimensions of which are inspired by the music of Handel. The arias here are thus of absolute modernity, and the palette of feelings that Héloïse Mas brings to each of these characters make her first disc as soloist a feast for all listeners. © Muso