“Handel’s Italians”, released today, 4 September 2026, on Harmonia Mundi, with Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée

Carlo Vistoli explores the legacy of the Italian castrati who helped make the genre of oratorio famous in England in his new album, “Handel’s Italians”, recorded for Harmonia Mundi and released today, 4 September 2026, in stores and on all major digital platforms. At the heart of the recording are the arias Georg Friedrich Händel wrote for some of the best-known castrati from Italy in his London oratorios – from Francesco Bernardi, known as Senesino, to Gaetano Guadagni, as well as Giovanni Carestini and Giovanni Battista Andreoni – who performed them in the British capital. Joining the countertenor are conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, who also performs on the organ, with her Baroque ensemble Le Concert d’Astrée, and soprano Giulia Semenzato, who sings with Vistoli in two duets.

“When the idea arose of a new recording project with Harmonia Mundi devoted entirely to Händel’s English-language oratorios,” Vistoli explains, “we felt it would be interesting to approach this repertoire from a rather unusual perspective, focusing on the role played at the time by the castrati and, more broadly, by Italian singers. It is indeed fascinating that, from his earliest works of the 1730s through to Theodora, the great masterpiece of his late period, Händel wrote – or rewrote – a large part of these oratorios for the finest Italian singers based in London, the same artists who in those years were appearing in operas by the composer that have since become legendary, such as Orlando, Alcina and Ariodante. Starting from this aspect, we imagined that an approach to this more dramatic and theatrical repertoire, stylistically shaped by opera and therefore ‘Italian’ in character, might have been what the Saxon composer had in mind. I am truly delighted to have embarked on this musical journey with an extraordinary artist such as Emmanuelle Haïm and her ensemble Le Concert d’Astrée, today one of the finest ensembles on the international Baroque scene.”

In the 1730s, Händel introduced to London the English-language dramatic oratorio, based on biblical or religious subjects and intended to be performed in a strictly concert form, in accordance with the religious regulations of Calvinist London. The first company of singers to devote itself to this new genre was that of the Royal Academy of Music, founded under the composer’s own aegis by a group of aristocrats and made up entirely of Italian artists. Among them were such prominent figures as the castrato Senesino and soprano Anna Maria Strada del Po, who were performing for the first time in a language other than Italian or Latin.

It is therefore possible to hear, on “Handel’s Italians”, English-language arias such as Ahasuerus’s “How can I stay when love invites”, originally performed by Senesino, from Esther – Händel’s first oratorio for London, written in 1732 – and Cyrus’s aria “Great God! Who yet but darkly known”, written for the castrato Gaetano Guadagni and inserted into the first act of Belshazzar for the oratorio’s revival in 1751. Alongside these are several arias translated into Italian for castrati who were less familiar with the English language, including Barak’s “Più bella spoglia sarà fral” from Deborah, sung by Giovanni Carestini at the oratorio’s third revival in 1734, and David’s “Di Jonathan lo stral portò” from Saul, performed at the time by Giovanni Battista Andreoni. Both are recorded here for the first time in their Italian versions. The album also includes music from Theodora – like the duet “To thee, thou glorious son of worth”, sung by Vistoli and Semenzato – as well as excerpts from Messiah and Athalia.

Next December, Carlo Vistoli, Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée will embark on a tour of Händel’s Messiah, with performances in Utrecht, the Netherlands; Tourcoing, Paris and Lyon, France; Barcelona and Madrid, Spain; and Los Angeles, California. Highlights of the countertenor’s 2026/27 season include a recital at Park Avenue Armory in New York; Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, conducted by Michele Mariotti; a return to the Salzburg Easter Festival, for the Easter Festival, with Emmanuelle Haïm and the Berliner Philharmoniker, once again performing Messiah; the title role in Händel’s Rinaldo at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Theater an der Wien; and Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, in the role of the Sorceress, at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Photo credits: Carlo Vistoli © Matthew Johnson Photographer