Is there no end to the making of countertenor baroque opera recital discs? The genre can too easily turn into showy virtuosity, but this one from Lawrence Zazzo is exceptionally well thought out. It explores the work of Handel and his two contemporaries Attilio Ariosti and Giovanni Bononcini, who were both involved in the Royal Academy operas of the 1720s and were sometimes more successful than Handel. In a blind tasting, one might not tell them apart, and Zazzo makes the central highlight a moving scene from Ariosti’s little-known Coriolano. Handelians may be less pleased with director David Bates’s heavily accented Va tacito, but the exuberant Vivi, tiranno rounds things off in style, with Zazzo in glorious voice throughout.
