When it comes down to it, the experiment called “La Maga Abbandonata” (“The Abandoned Sorceress”) is a clever excuse to take some wonderful arias and scenes from three important Handel operas — “Rinaldo,” “Alcina” and “Amadigi” — and string them together to create an imagined Baroque opera Handel never wrote.
The experiment works, primarily because the material its creators draw from is so intrinsically good. Conductor and musicologist Alan Curtis and novelist Donna Leon have taken about 15 excerpts from those three Handel operas and outfitted them with a new story line about a sorceress scorned by her faithless lover. None of the illogic of that narrative really matters; what does matter is the joy one gets from hearing prime Handel beautifully sung.
The other reason this scholarly exercise is so much more than that is the singers, German soprano Simone Kermes and Spanish contralto Maite Beaumont, are superb. Kermes has a bright, jewel-like timbre, and Beaumont wields a rich, plummy vocal instrument. They blend to perfection in their duets and shine in their solos, which include some justly famous arias, including “Sta nell’Ircana,” “Verdi prati,” and “Ombre pallide,” from “Alcina.” They are accompanied crisply and sensitively by the 18 period-instrumentalists of the excellent Italian ensemble Il Complesso Barocco, under Curtis’ caring direction. The hushed narration by Donna Leon is superfluous.
