Emma Bell - Handel - The Sunday Times

Emma Bell is making a name for herself as a lyric-dramatic soprano - her Vitellia in Mozart's Tito, for ENO, was outstanding. She came to prominence as a substitute Rodelinda in Handel's opera at Glyndebourne, so it is appropriate that her first album should be devoted to the composer's rich and varied arias for soprano. Rodelinda's ravishing laments, Ombre piante and Se ‘l mio duol, had to be included, and Bell delivers expressive, greif-laden accounts, restraining her big voice with remarkable musical refinement. She is at her best in slow-moving numbers, but she occasionally sounds pressed by a bravura number such as Scherza in mar, from Lotario. This is an enjoyable debut for an artist of immense potential.