Title: Perhaps the wrong approach
Product review: Mr. Baumann's comments on this site are right on target, but there is one point of view that needs to be voiced. Why bother with a reconstruction at all? In listening to "Turandot" (say) I always hit the Stop button when Puccini's music ceases. In the case of "Rodrigo," the plot is not so compelling that the public is panting for a complete version. Would it not have been far better simply (or complexly) to record those parts of the score that do not call for flights of imagination and borrowings from the composer's other works? Giving a stage performance is one thing, making a recording another. I am grateful for that part of the work that is Handel's. The trouble is I can never be sure in listening what part that is, except for the instances given in the notes that come with the libretto. Perhaps the producers would consider a single CD without the tiresome recites of just those parts that are undoubtedly authentic. Merely a Modest Proposal.
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