There are relatively few recordings of Alcina out there, even though Handel’s Tempest-like opera of infatuation, rescue and enchantment is one of his most popular on stage. This new one scores highly, partly for the dramatic relish with which the conductor Marc Minkowski and his Musiciens du Louvre dispatch the music, but principally for a tour de force performance in the title role from the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená. She keeps the emotional import of the words she sings absolutely front and centre of her delivery, without compromising the shape or sense of the music, and she has fabulous low notes as a bonus. Her two great Act 2 scenes of rejection, vengeance and despair are riveting.
