Search - George Frederick Handel, Peter Neumann, Collegium Cartusianum :: Handel: Susanna

The story of the innocent Susanna--whose nude bathing in a stream so excited two elders in her community that they charged her with all sorts of dirty things--is from the Apocrypha. Near the story's close, the young Israelite Daniel, clearly a budding lawyer, disproves the elders' claims by having each explain certain details without the other in the room. (In the Carlisle Floyd version, there's a twist, and the ending is horrifyingly different.) The story, as Handel and his unknown librettist tell it, takes more than two and a half hours. What we get in place of nail-biting drama is a marvelous portrait of the chaste Susanna, her trusting husband, Joacim, and the lascivious elders. There's also a great concentration on the plot's rural setting. Arias are filled with nature--Handel offers us a lovely pastoral setting, with a could-be-tragic story at its core; but neither Nature nor Susanna's good nature wind up sullied. This is a beautiful performance of the work, led by Peter Neumann with tenderness and, when required, with great verve. Neumann makes only a few cuts, equaling about 10 minutes and approved by Handel for the work's 1759 revival. Nicholas McGegan's account on Harmonia Mundi is note-complete and just as handsomely played. His Susanna, Lorraine Hunt, wins over this set's Elisabeth von Magnus, but only by a hair; our present Joacim, Syste Buwalda, however, is better than McGegan's Drew Minter. And Neumann's two elders are even nastier than McGegan's. It's a really close call--either performance of this attractive work is to be recommended. --Robert Levine