St George's, Hanover SquareThe Vestry, 2A Mill St, London, Greater London, W1S 1FX, United Kingdom
Dates/times in London time zone
Festival: London Handel FestivalProgramme
| Handel, George Frideric (1685-1759) | Saul |
Performers
| Laurence Cummings | Conductor | |
| London Handel Orchestra | ||
| London Handel Singers | ||
| Adrian Butterfield | Director | |
| Lucy Crowe | Soprano | Merab |
| Sophie Junker | Soprano | Michal |
| Iestyn Davies | Countertenor | David |
| Nicholas Mulroy | Tenor | Jonathan |
| Njal Sparbo | Bass | Saul |
Saul (1739), Handel’s fourth English oratorio and his first
collaboration with Charles Jennens, is for many the
composer’s most dramatic work. Drawing on tumultuous
events in ancient Israel that were charged with political
meaning in his own day, Handel charts the downfall of King
Saul and his replacement by the virtuous but non-royal David.
Jennens was Handel’s first librettist fully to appreciate
oratorio’s potential and Handel’s capacity to exploit it. His
drama, combining Shakespearian interplay of character and
Greek tragic intensity, prompted music of unprecedented
imaginative Power, freedom, concision, and affectiveness.
Handel enables us to see his characters’ actions – Goliath’s
strides, a crowd of women approaching, Merab’s head-tossing
contempt, Saul’s javelin thrust. He ranges from anguished
soliloquy to rapturous duet, from the jubilation of the opening
chorus to the sparse pain of the dead march. Harvesting thirty
years’ experience of opera writing, he evokes a huge gamut
of feeling – joy, festivity, love at first sight, same-sex affection,
conjugal love, suspicion, reconciliation, jealousy, fear, anger,
hate, desolation, tragic self-recognition, bereavement,
determination – taking us into the deepest recesses of his
characters’ minds and hearts and making the figures of
Old Testament history vividly human.Tickets £60 - £10 reserved seating will be on sale from 17th January.
collaboration with Charles Jennens, is for many the
composer’s most dramatic work. Drawing on tumultuous
events in ancient Israel that were charged with political
meaning in his own day, Handel charts the downfall of King
Saul and his replacement by the virtuous but non-royal David.
Jennens was Handel’s first librettist fully to appreciate
oratorio’s potential and Handel’s capacity to exploit it. His
drama, combining Shakespearian interplay of character and
Greek tragic intensity, prompted music of unprecedented
imaginative Power, freedom, concision, and affectiveness.
Handel enables us to see his characters’ actions – Goliath’s
strides, a crowd of women approaching, Merab’s head-tossing
contempt, Saul’s javelin thrust. He ranges from anguished
soliloquy to rapturous duet, from the jubilation of the opening
chorus to the sparse pain of the dead march. Harvesting thirty
years’ experience of opera writing, he evokes a huge gamut
of feeling – joy, festivity, love at first sight, same-sex affection,
conjugal love, suspicion, reconciliation, jealousy, fear, anger,
hate, desolation, tragic self-recognition, bereavement,
determination – taking us into the deepest recesses of his
characters’ minds and hearts and making the figures of
Old Testament history vividly human.Tickets £60 - £10 reserved seating will be on sale from 17th January.
