Handel: Abbandonata - Italian Cantatas

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Acclaimed soprano Carolyn Sampson, partnered by Robert King and The Kings Consort, with whom she has been strongly associated throughout her professional career, turns her talents to Handels two most dramatic cantatas, linked by the theme of abandoned women. During his stay in Italy from 1706-10 the young Handels eyes and ears were opened wide. Hearing Italian music played by Italian musicians in Italian palazzos, churches and theatres must have been jaw-dropping. Nowhere are those influences more vividly demonstrated than in his early Italian cantatas. In Armida abbandonata the heroine tries, and fails, to abandon the love that has abandoned her. Storms, passion, monsters, yearning, heartache, anguish and finally resignation are all portrayed in this strongest of cantatas. Even more powerful emotions are conjured up in Agrippina condotta a morire. The mother of the crazed emperor Nero is ruthless, ambitious, scheming, domineering, violent and beautiful. Realising that she has been betrayed by her own son, her emotions swing through disbelief, injustice, fury, resentment, grief, betrayal, resilience, pride, self-pity, humiliation, thwarted vengeance and finally come to resignation. Handel pushes all the boundaries, showing techniques that were to be incorporated into his works for decades to come in music of astonishing originality. Carolyn Sampson powerfully captures the drama in full-blooded, committed performances.