Handel - Ariodante / von Otter, Dawson, Cangemi, Podles, Croft, Sedov, Coadou, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski

Ariodante is one of Handel's most consistently fine operas. Yes, yes, there are whole strings of da capo arias, but they are so dramatically apt and melodically interesting that things never get tiresome. Harmonia Mundi recently released a fine recording of this opera (conducted by Nicholas McGegan and starring "La Divina" Lorraine Hunt), yet this is even better. Anne Sofie Von Otter has, in recent years, sometimes oversung in Baroque music, but her tone here is ideal--heroic and powerful yet pure. Lynne Dawson is simply spectacular throughout, her coloratura, tone, and emotional range being everything one could wish for. Contralto Ewa Podles makes a genuinely menacing arch-villain in a role taken too often by flimsy falsettists. There's not a weak link in the cast, and Mark Minkowski's conducting is consistently exciting. There is no better recording of a Handel opera out there. --Matthew Westphal