Ariodante, from 1735, comes from one of the composer’s finest periods, one in which his melodic and dramatic invention seem to have been at their keenest. The plot concerns Ariodante’s love for his fiancée Ginevra and his rival Polinesso’s attempt to make Ariodante believe that Ginevra is unfaithful; of course, things turn out well, but not before Ariodante is wrongfully thought dead and Ginevra goes temporarily mad. The opera teems with da capo arias, but they are infinitely varied, and here performed with such verve that the action actually seems to make sense. Marc Minkowski pushes the drama along with potency, never allowing the form to settle into tedium; the recitatives are particularly telling. The title role is taken by the always superb Anne Sophie Von Otter, who, to my ears, as usual, lacks only the recognizable timbre needed to set her performances apart. Ginevra finds the ideal interpreter in Lynne Dawson, and Ewa Podles’ villainous Polinesso almost steals the show. The remainder of the cast is excellent, with tenor Richard Croft’s gloriously sung Lurcanio particularly outstanding. The sound is glorious. Nicholas McGegan’s reading of this opera on Harmonia Mundi is wonderful, but this one is even better.
