Alice Coote; Harry Bicket: The English Concert - Handel: Arias

Hyperion is delighted to present a tour de force from the supreme mezzo-soprano of today, Alice Coote, accompanied by The English Concert and Harry Bicket, making their Hyperion debut. Coote performs a selection of Handel�s greatest arias from opera and oratorio, employing an extraordinary range of vocal and dramatic colour, tone and emotion to produce triumphant and moving interpretations of these masterpieces.Every piece is a highlight. Handel�s Italian operas are represented by his first two Covent Garden operas, Alcina and the great tragedy Ariodante, and also Radamisto and Giulio Cesare in Egitto (perhaps Handel�s most popular opera today). Handel�s English oratorio Hercules contains music of utter beauty. Written to a libretto by Thomas Broughton based on Sophocles� Trachiniae, it is a drama of sombre magnificence. At its centre is the tragic figure of Hercules� wife Dejanira, a role to rival Saul as a study in the corrosive power of jealousy. Little is known about the �Miss Robinson� who created the part. But the music that Handel wrote for her suggests that she must have been a fine singing actress. Alice Coote�s powers in this direction are unrivalled today.