Having risen to prominence after appearing as Cleopatra in David McVicar's highly-acclaimed production of Giulio Cesare in 2005, it's perhaps no surprise that soprano Danielle de Niese chose to devote her debut album to Handel arias. But I fear that for me it proves to be a huge disappointment, for a number of reasons.
Prime amongst them is the question of the suitability of the material for the singer. Even in 2005 De Niese wasn't vocally flawless, but any small weaknesses were easily explained by the singer's tender age and the demands of a hugely taxing role. Furthermore, her stunning physical appearance (glamorous photographs adorn the album cover) and stage presence far outweighed any shortcomings. But some of the small flaws seem to have intensified rather than smoothed out, and for me there's a question about whether De Niese's voice is really distinctive enough for the recording studio. She sings with a heavy vibrato in every single aria, and it often causes her to sound wobbly and even go a little out of tune. Equally frustrating is the almost complete absence of dynamic contrast in the singing: nearly every aria is over-sung, over-vigorous and, at its worst, just too plain loud to the point of sounding like shouting. The voice is not connected between the registers; nice and full in the middle octave, it becomes squally at the top and there is an audible strain when she has to leap to a high note from a low note. The coloratura seems to get the better of De Niese in many of the arias, most of which are too heavy, and in general it just sounds like she's trying too hard. The acoustic is a disaster: taken in a church in Paris, the recording has an excessive echo that may be responsible for the disadvantageous presentation of the voice. The balance between orchestra and voice is also questionable, with the soprano much too forward. This may also be responsible in part for the apparent loudness.
All of these problems are immediately apparent in 'Da tempeste' from Giulio Cesare. While it's true that Cleopatra is talking about a ship buffeted by a storm, there's no need for the entire six-minute aria to be delivered fortissimo. What really shocked me about the performance was that compared to her Glyndebourne interpretation of the aria, there's little bite or attack in her approach, the volume notwithstanding. What happened to her crisp diction when singing in Italian? The same goes for 'Piangeṛ la sorte mia' from the same opera. It's delivered with little sense of either text or style, unlike the Glyndebourne DVD (which I consulted again by way of comparison). The extreme vibrato really does show up in a slow aria such as this, to the detriment of the singer's intonation, and she sounds strained at the top. And again concerning the language, the 'r' sounds that were rolled so dramatically at Glyndebourne are here homogenised.
It was brave to record 'Lascia ch'io pianga' from Rinaldo, in light of the many versions already available. Again I find the vibrato a problem because of the way it affects pitching. There's little attempt at characterisation, either, so the aria plods on at the same level for a very long five minutes. The more upbeat 'Tornami a vagheggiar' from Alcina is better suited to De Niese's vivacious personality, so she connects with the material more, evidently loving the sections where she sings in tandem with the wind instruments. The repeat of the A section, however, is over-decorated, which only serves to show the singer's technical weaknesses.
She is more restrained in 'Dolce riposo' from Teseo and even attempts to tone down the vibrato, applying it at the end of the long held notes rather than all the way through. It's good to have this less familiar aria included, along with 'O stringeṛ nel sen' from the same work. But here the lower register sounds as hollow as the top sounds forced; at the final cadence she is cruelly exposed, though this track is in general attacked with gusto. The wobbly vibrato returns in the beautiful aria 'Felicissima quest'alma' from Apollo e Dafne, and the interpretation is bland. Ginevra in Ariodante is a role which De Niese has played, so I was disappointed to find her making such a meal of 'Il mio crudel martoro'. This kind of aria can be the most sensuous music in the world but here it's too loud, and De Niese simply doesn't have the sumptuous tone for it; she's also out of tune on certain notes. I compared her version with the complete recording with Janet Baker on Philips, in which Edith Mathis plays Ginevra. Although Mathis also uses vibrato it is much more controlled and there are no tuning issues. The older recording is also much more haunting.
For me, the extended harpsichord ad libitum sections in Armida the sorceress' vengeance aria 'Vo' far guerra' from Rinaldo are overlong and out of place in a solo arias disc. When we do get to the singing, De Niese is again overstretched in the coloratura passages and unevenly tuned in the sustained parts. 'Ah, spietato' from Amadigi di Gaula is a welcome inclusion and it's well controlled on the whole. But listen to the moment between 3'54 and 3'56 when De Niese sings 'Ah', for instance: it's horribly out of tune, and even as an attempt at expression (which I suspect here and in many of the tracks) it's well beyond tolerance.
Finally, two arias from Semele highlight the poor recording acoustic. She's singing in English but sometimes the echo is so serious that it's hard to tell what De Niese is talking about. The first aria is 'Myself I shall adore', and even in the first ascent up to 'adore' the acoustic clouds the tone quality. There's lots of echoing throughout this aria, in fact, and it recurs in 'Endless pleasure', the final track on the disc, which suits De Niese's character rather well but again reveals vocal flaws. This makes me wonder whether the recording conditions are to blame for some of the shortcomings of the disc.
There is one saving grace to the affair, a massive plus that gives the recording a solid background and shows off De Niese's voice at its best when it's free of problems. William Christie and Les Arts Florissants really are a dream team for accompanying an album of baroque music and their timbre is out of this world, truly evoking the period and stylistically aware where De Niese is not. Nevertheless, I find it difficult to recommend this debut album and direct Handelians to Magdalena Kozena's excellent new CD instead.
Danielle de Niese's new album, 'Handel Arias', is available on Amazon now.