この演奏に配された二人のカウンターテナーというのは、ディレク・リー・レィギンがアンドロニコを歌い、マイケル・チャンスがタメルラーノ役というとても興味深い組み合わせです。僕にとってまず、マイケル・チャンスはずっと昔、「メサイア」で聴いて、カウンターテナーの魅力を根っこにたたき込まれた思い入れのある歌い手なのです。そしてレィギンはと言えば、映画「カストラート」でファリネッリの男女合成された歌声の片方を受け持った米国の黒人歌手で、映画のメイキング（必見！）を見ていても製作過程での情感豊かな歌いぶりには感銘させられる、そんなカウンターテナーで、もっと彼のヘンデルを聴いてみたいと思っていたところでした。
録音は1985年で、あの「メサイア」から3年くらい後とかなり早い段階でガーディナーはすでにこの演目を手がけていたことになります。僕はこれまで彼の演奏会をサンフランシスコ、グラナダ、パリまで出かけて聴いており、こんなマニアは日本にもそうはいないだろうと内心自負していたのに、実は知らないことがこんなに多いということですね。
演奏の質は高く、素敵な歌も多いので、しばらくは2種類のタメルラーノを比較などしながらどっぷりと楽しめそうです。
I wrote about Domingo and Temerlano in end August, and afterward I was looking for a performance with counter-tenor singers. In the end, what I came across with was the recording by Gardiner under Erato label.
Two singers featured in this stage were Derek Lee Ragin for Andronicus and Michael Chance for Tamerlano, a most interesting couple. For me, Michael was so impressive in Messiah many years ago that he fundamentally built a solid confidence in me for counter-tenors. As for Derek, he was one of two singers whose voices, female and male, were engineered to compose the voice of “Farinelli” the movie. His emotional singing was the highlight of the making DVD of this movie, and I was thinking of trying more Handel songs by him.
This performance was recorded in 1985, some three years after the renowned Gardiner’s “Messiah”, which means that he challenged this opera in rather early days. Having chased him and his concerts in San Francisco, Granada, and Paris so far, I was kind of secretly proud of being a rare and passionate Japanese fan of the Monteverdi Choir as such, but in reality there are still so many things that I am not totally aware of.
The quality of performance is quite high and because this opera contains many charming arias, I can spare my time for a while long enough to listen to and compare two different performances.
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