| vendredi 12 juin 2026 | 19:00 |
| René Jacobs | Direction |
| Kateryna Kasper | Soprano |
| Sophie Harmsen | Mezzo-soprano |
| Christian Senn | Baryton |
| Kammerorchester Basel |
One wedding – and a funeral? On 19 July 1708, a prince’s daughter and a young duke the same age as Handel marry in Naples. The bride’s aunt, Aurora Sanseverino, Duchess of Laurenzano, commissions a young German composer who is currently the talk of the town in Rome to write a festive composition for the wedding. Her court poet writes the libretto. Handel completes the composition in Naples in June 1708. The bride and bridegroom are presented with a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses: the cyclops Polifemo falls in love with the beautiful nymph, Galatea.
But she loves the shepherd boy Aci and rejects her coarse suitor. In fury, Polyphemus slays his rival with a boulder. Galatea transforms her dead lover into a river, so the two are united. A strange subject for a wedding – but Handel transforms it into one of the most beautiful and moving works from his Italian period, a work he would return to continually right up to the end of his life.
Tickets:
90/60/35/20 €
