Sandrine Piau - Handel: Enchantresses - Gramophone

This is an excellent successor to the album that Sandrine Piau recorded with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques 18 years ago (Naïve, 1/05), described by David Vickers in his review as the finest recital of Handel arias that he had ever heard.

She is also breathtakingly good in the aria from Amadigi, where Melissa – who really is an enchantress – competes with a trumpet and an oboe, hard to tell apart and brilliantly played by Emmanuel Mure and Vincent Blanchard respectively. 

Piau ends with the famous ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’, sung by Almirena: again, no enchantress (that is to say, sorceress), but what enchantment in the singing!