This release by soprano Camilla Tilling is one of those with a dual purpose. One is on the surface: the album is a collection of arias about love in its more joyful and its sadder sides. The other is not explicit, but is equally important: the operatic languages of Mozart and Gluck have everything to do with each other, but the two are not so often placed side by side in recital. Tilling is in fine voice, and she executes both halves of this proposition beautifully. The most Gluckian opera in the Mozart canon is Idomeneo, K ...
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This release by soprano Camilla Tilling is one of those with a dual purpose. One is on the surface: the album is a collection of arias about love in its more joyful and its sadder sides. The other is not explicit, but is equally important: the operatic languages of Mozart and Gluck have everything to do with each other, but the two are not so often placed side by side in recital. Tilling is in fine voice, and she executes both halves of this proposition beautifully. The most Gluckian opera in the Mozart canon is Idomeneo, K. 366, and Tilling opens with the overture in a fine, sharp reading by the historical-performance group Musica Saeculorum, followed by a pair of arias. These, and the other arias on the program, are preceded by their recitatives. That's unusual by and large in Classical-era opera recitals, but Tilling is in pursuit of the dramatic sense of each scene she explores, and she makes each one count. From there Tilling moves into Gluck and then into the later Mozart operas, touching on a...
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