In Handel's operas, the characters played by castrati were essentially those of power: sovereigns, Roman emperors, heroes such as Rinaldo and Orlando, and the jealous Polinesso!
From Handel's debut in Italy with Agrippina (1709) to his London triumphs of the 1720s and 1730s, countertenor Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian resurrects these oversized operatic characters, embodied by the Primo Uomo: the contralto castrato Senesino is the pivotal figure in this anthology, which also evokes the castrati Nicolini and Antonio Baldi. In the heroic vein, anger and amorous spite are the strongest dramatic moments written by Handel: here they are brought together admirably by a great singer of our time, whose name could be - who knows - that of a King or a Handelian hero: Paul-Antoine!
