A 'not evil' Internet service makes classical rarities affordable
Soprano Dominique Labelle is currently the most active recording artist among Boston-based singers. On various labels she takes leading roles in seven recordings of Handel operas and oratorios, as well as in works of Bach, Scarlatti, and Vivaldi. Labelle launched her career right out of Boston University in the famous Peter Sellars production of Mozart's ``Don Giovanni," set in Spanish Harlem, and that too has reappeared on DVD, preserving not just Labelle's performance of Donna Anna but a blazing Donna Elvira from the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.
Some of the most desirable of Labelle's recordings are hard to come by, however, and expensive, too. To hear her in Handel's ``Rinaldo," ``Rodelinda," and ``Jephtha," for example, you need to join the friends of the Goettingen Handel Festival (minimum contribution $25) before you can order the recordings at $40 a pop.
So it is good to report that her latest Handel recording, ``Atalanta," in which she takes the title role, is more accessible. It appears through Magnatune , a relatively new Internet-based service whose motto is ``We are not evil." ``Listen to Music," reads its business card. ``Fight the evil music industry."
California entrepreneur John Buckman founded Magnatune after his wife, a performer, had a dismal experience with her debut album in the world of traditional commercial recording.
Magnatune sets out to be fair and friendly to both artists and consumers. You can listen to any Magnatune album streamed complete for free from its website (www.magnatune.com), download it for a suggested fee of $8, or order it on a finished CD (suggested price $8 a disc, plus $4.97 for duplication costs and postage). Fifty percent of all revenues go directly to the artist(s). All music on Magnatune has been cleared for licensing, so it can be broadcast or used in films or other audiovisual and Web-based productions.
So far the classical-music world is most extensively represented in Magnatune's catalog through early-music groups. Probably the most prominent ensemble to join the label so far is the California-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra ; ``Atalanta" comes from live performances in Berkeley , Calif., last September. Some Boston artists have already signed on -- the Sarasa Ensemble and baroque cellist Phoebe Carrai, for example, and it is good to see an album by the late early-music tenor John Fleagle restored to circulation.
Magnatune's drill needs a little tightening , because getting a CD copy of ``Atalanta" is labor-intensive. The customer must order each of the two discs independently -- and pay for postage twice. Steven Ledbetter's program notes and a copy of the libretto are available, but to get them, you have to go to the Philharmonia Baroque website (www.philharmonia.org ) and download them.
Even to find such basic information as a cast list is tricky, let alone a roster of the instrumentalists. The singers are not listed on the CDs or in a prominent place on the websites of either Magnatune or Philharmonia Baroque. I finally found the list in a review of the live performance linked to Magnatune's press site. FYI, the singers in addition to Labelle are Susanne Ryden, Cecile van de Sant, Michael Slattery, Philip Cutlip, and Corey McKern ; the conductor is Nicholas McGegan.
And what about ``Atalanta"? The opera is a pastoral/romantic comedy; Atalanta herself would rather hunt for boar than concern herself with love. The music is delightful, and the performance is vigorous and generally well-played and sung, although not free of irritating, generic early-music mannerisms and some unidiomatic delivery of the Italian recitatives. At track 14, about 35 minutes in, Labelle makes her spectacular vocal entrance, and after that, musical matters perk up permanently.
A quarter century ago, in 1981, Smith and Peter Sellars made history with a famous production of ``Orlando" at the American Repertory Theatre. Countertenor Jeffrey Gall took the title role in one of the alternating casts, and he returns to the part next season. Others in the cast include sopranos Dominique Labelle and Kendra Colton, mezzo Krista River, and baritone David Kravitz. Smith conducts.
Michael Beattie will lead ``Ariodante" with a cast including Gall, baritone Sanford Sylvan (Gall's alternate at the ART), sopranos Sarah Pelletier and Jayne West , mezzo Paula Murrihy , and tenor Charles Blandy.
``Alcina," with Smith on the podium, features sopranos Jessica Tarnish , Barbara Kilduff, and Roberta Anderson ; mezzos Valerie Arboit and Pamela Dellal ; tenor Frank Kelley ; and baritone Donald Wilkinson.
The third year of Emmanuel's Schumann series, devoted to the complete piano music, chamber music, and songs of Robert Schumann , continues with five concerts Nov. 5-March 18 with Emmanuel regulars and guests, including pianist Russell Sherman and the piano trio Triple Helix. As usual, there will be regular Bach cantata performances Sunday mornings during the service at Emmanuel Church from Sept. 28 through May 13.
