COMPANY: Harmonia Mundi
ARTIST: Rene Jacobs
CATEGORY: CD
COMPOSER: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Product: 3149020934838

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In his traversal of the Mozart operas with librettos by Da Ponte, René Jacobs has championed an approach which “contrasts above all with the style that began to determine our listening habits in the first half of the twentieth century... I am convinced that we must first of all eliminate, or at least clean up, the retouching applied in the nineteenth century in order to allow the original colours to reemerge,” as he explained at the time of the release of Così fan tutte. Whether in terms of his choice of instruments, recitative delivery, or vocal ornamentation, his readings aim to restore to opera buffa and to dramma giocoso their very essence: namely, their theatricality.

Box set includes nine CDs plus a data disc featuring PDFs and a realm of additional information.

2010

If Jacobs is hardly the first modern conductor to present the opera in its 'original colours', his Don Giovanni is among the liveliest and most enjoyable on offer. It is certainly one of the most brilliantly played. The Freiburg band, forwardly balanced, are eager, involved participants in the drama...few could deny the zest, sweep and sheer theatrical charge of this recording. [Don Giovanni]

2010

Jacobs is freer over tempo than most conductors...The cast is excellent. Véronique Gens offers a beautifully natural, shapely 'Porgi amor' and a passionate and spirited 'Dove sono'...Regazzo offers a strong Figaro, with a wide range of voice...Then there's Angelika Kirschlager's Cherubino, alive and urgent in 'Non so più', every little phrase neatly moulded...Strongly cast, imaginatively directed: it's a Figaro well worth hearing. [Le nozze di Figaro]

September 2006

Regazzo's brilliant diction and timing put him in the first rank…Pendatchanska's Elvira seemed in each of her appearances like a Fury descending not only on Giovanni, but on all the other characters too. [Don Giovanni]

2010

René Jacobs conducts a bitingly sharp account of Don Giovanni...the cast list does not sound distinguished, yet they make a superb team with no weak link, and Jacobs's speeds are sensible rather than exaggerated. The soloists all have fresh, clear, firm voices. [Don Giovanni]

2010

René Jacobs conducts one of the refreshing versions of Figaro to be issued in many years...Véronique Gens is one of the most distinguished of Countesses, and Patrizia Ciofi is a sparkling Susanna, while Simon Keenlyside is a superb Count, well contrasted with the strongly acted Figaro of Lorenzo Regazzo. [Le Nozze di Figaro]

2nd April 2004

This is as fine a Figaro as has appeared on disc in the past 20 years...Most important of all, this is a version of Figaro that sounds as if it has come straight out of the theatre...It is hard to think of another recording of Figaro in which every particle of the text, in ensembles as well as solo numbers, is so clearly enunciated. That clarity aids everyone's characterisation. [Le Nozze di Figaro]

Mozart: Così fan tutte, K588
Mozart: Don Giovanni, K527
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K492
Conductors
Jacobs, René
Groups & Artists
Ciofi, Patrizia
Concerto Cologne
Fink, Bernarda
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Gens, Veronique
Güra, Werner
Jacobs, René
Keenlyside, Simon
Pendatchanska, Alexandrina
Regazzo, Lorenzo
Sunhae Im
Tarver, Kenneth
Weisser, Johannes