The Arts Fuse has a new review for Isabel Bayrakdarian, Constantine Orbelian, and the Kaunas City Symphony’s The Other Cleopatra: Queen of Armenia recording:
“A delightful recording — and the first ever! — of arias from Hasse’s and Gluck’s operas about Tigranes and Cleopatra of Pontus. Plus four arias by Vivaldi for that same Cleopatra. … One doesn’t have to be a specialist collector to take delight in the music-making here. Bayrakdarian, a magnificent singer, has maintained all the beauty and steadiness of her voice… One of the fascinating aspects of this disc is hearing three different composers writing in roughly the same style during roughly the same era but with different temperaments and, to some extent, different musical means. … Bayrakdarian and conductor Constantine Orbelian adjust their tempi and style sensitively to match the shifting emotions that Princess Cleopatra traverses… Unlike some early-music singers today, Bayrakdarian’s voice is full and rounded at both the top and bottom, and she never takes tempos so fast that the musical line gets shattered into a series of consonantal explosions. One can listen to this disc for pleasure, repeatedly, whether paying attention to the words or not. Fine instrumental support is given by the Kaunas City Symphony (in Lithuania) and renowned harpsichordist Jory Vinikour.”
—Ralph P. Locke, The Arts Fuse