Sacred raptures cheer my breast
The English Concert’s annual Handel tour brings Solomon conducted by Harry Bicket to the US beginning Sunday March 5. In anticipation, Chris’s Cache offers Solomon plus four other oratorios by the master: Belshazzar, Hercules, Saul and Jephtha, all via broadcasts for which I feel a personal connection.
Bryn Terfel was once rumored to take part in a staging of Saul, one of the very greatest 18th century music dramas, with Les Arts Florissants, but it never happened: This Edinburgh Festival concert may then have been his only Saul, and LAF has sadly yet to perform the work. I heard David Daniels as a nearly ideal David in an uninspired Philharmonia Baroque concert co-starring Dominique Labelle and Jennifer Smith at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1998, a year before today’s broadcast.
Christof Loy’s Saul production at the Bavarian State Opera emphasized a homoerotic attraction between David and Jonathan. Despite gay performers in the two roles, it didn’t quite come off when I saw it; Brian Asawa’s sour, recessive David lacked charisma, leaving John Mark Ainsley’s superb Jonathan without an equal partner. Lately Saul has been taken up successfully by other regie directors: Barrie Kosky at the Glyndebourne Festival and Claus Guth at the Theater an der Wien.
The first time I heard Ann Hallenberg was 21 years ago at the Berlin Konzerthaus as Dejanira in Hercules conducted by Marcus Creed. Her Iole was Karina Gauvin whom I traveled to Montréal to hear in Theodora conducted by Bernard Labadie with Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Irene. René Jacobs conducted Jephtha with nearly the same forces as today’s offering at Alice Tully Hall five months before the broadcast posted today; the only difference was that New York got the great Richard Croft in the title role.
Unfortunately, I’ve yet to hear live my longtime favorite Belshazzar which features particularly splendid choruses. The current Theater an der Wien’s staging of Belshazzar with Jeanine De Bique as Nitocris ends its run tonight. By the way, the Trinidadian soprano visits New York at the end of this month with Concerto Köln (the superb orchestra for the CC Belshazzar) for her familiar “Mirrors” program which includes a number of Handel opera seria selections.
The title role of Solomon was created in 1749 Italian mezzo soprano Caterina Galli. For the English Concert tour, he is being sung by Hallenberg who is taking on the role for the first time. I’ve heard that Bicket favorite Iestyn Davies was his original choice, but Davies decided to take on both Solomon and Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in Berlin instead (the former was broadcast live on Sunday from the Philharmonie conducted by relative baroque newcomer Robin Ticciati).
Over the years I’ve preferred a mezzo as Solomon based on fine recordings by Carolyn Watkinson and Sarah Connolly, as well as a brand-new one with a miscast Christopher Lowrey in the title role. I’m particularly looking forward Hallenberg as my previous Solomons—David Hansen with Jacobs in New York and Michael Chance conducted by Ivor Bolton at the Salzburg Pfingstfestspiele—have been ineffective countertenors.
Catch Solomon in Berkeley, Los Angeles or New York.
Handel: Saul
Michal: Lisa Milne
Merab: Joan Rodgers
David: David Daniels
Jonathan: Ian Bostridge
Saul: Bryn Terfel
High Priest: Toby Spence
Ghost of Samuel: Neal Davies
Witch of Endor: Neil Jenkins
Edinburgh Festival Chorus
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Conductor: Charles Mackerras
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
15 August 1999
Broadcast
Handel: Solomon
First Harlot/Queen of Saba: Karina Gauvin
Solomon’s Queen: Shannon Mercer
Solomon: Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Second Harlot: Krisztina Szabó
Zadok: James Gilchrist
Levite: Philippe Sly
La Chapelle de Québec
Les Violons du Roy
Conductor: Bernard Labadie
Palais Montcalm, Québec City
21 March 2014
Broadcast
Handel: Jephtha
Iphis: Rosemary Joshua
Storgé: Patricia Bardon
Hamor: William Purefoy
Jephtha: Kobie van Rensburg
Zebul: D’Arcy Bleiker
The Clare College Choir, Cambridge
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Conductor: René Jacobs
Congress Saal Tirol, Innsbruck
20 August 2002
Broadcast
Handel: Hercules
Iole: Ingela Bohlin
Dejanira: Ann Hallenberg
Lichas: Charlotte Hellekant
Hyllus: Ed Lyon
Hercules: Nathan Berg
Priest of Jupiter: Simon Kirkbride
Chorus of the Netherlands Opera
St. James’s Baroque
Conductor: Christopher Moulds
De Nederlandse Opera, Muziektheater Amsterdam
10 May 2007
Broadcast
Handel: Belshazzar
Nitocris: Rosemary Joshua
Cyrus: Ann Hallenberg
Daniel: Michael Chance
Belshazzar: Mark Padmore
Gobrias: Andrew Foster-Williams
NDR Chor
Concerto Köln
Conductor: Marcus Creed
Hauptkirche St. Michelis, Hamburg
21 January 2005
Broadcast
A while back Trove Thursday presented an episode of “old-fashioned” Handel oratorios including Hercules with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig, Richard Verreau and Walter Berry and Joshua featuring Sena Jurinac, Oralia Dominguez, Richard Lewis and Sesto Bruscantini.
Each oratorio can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.
Chris’s Cache returns in several weeks to dig deep into an opera by Richard Strauss.
Christopher Corwin
Christopher Corwin began writing for parterre box in 2011 under the pen name “DeCaffarrelli.” His work has also appeared in , The New York Times, Musical America, The Observer, San Francisco Classical Voice and BAMNotes. Like many, he came to opera via the Saturday Met Opera broadcasts which he began listening to at age 11. His particular enthusiasm is 17th and 18th century opera. Since 2015 he has curated the weekly podcast Trove Thursday on parterre box presenting live recordings.
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Topics: chris's cache, handel, oratorio
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People: Andrew Foster-Williams, Ann Hallenberg, Barrie Kosky, Bernard Labadie, Brian Asawa, Bryn Terfel, Carolyn Watkinson, Charles Mackerras, Christa Ludwig, Christof Loy, Christopher Lowrey, Christopher Moulds, Claus Guth, David Daniels, David Hanlon, Dominique Labelle, Ed Lyon, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Ian Bostridge, Iestyn Davies, Ivor Bolton, James Gilchrist, Jeanine De Bique, Jennifer Smith, Joan Rodgers, John Mark Ainsley, Kobie van Rensburg, Krisztina Szabó, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Mark Padmore, Michael Chance, Nathan Berg, Neal Davies, Neil Jenkins, Oralia Dominguez, Patricia Bardon, Philippe Sly, Rene Jacobs, Richard Croft, Richard Lewis, Richard Verreau, Robin Ticciati, Rosemary Joshua, Sarah Connolly, Sena Jurinac, Sesto Bruscantini, Toby Spence, Walter Berry
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Works: Belshazzar, Hercules, Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno, Jeptha, Saul, Solomon, Theodora
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Places & Organizations: Alice Tully Hall, Bavarian State Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Concerto Köln, Glyndebourne Festival, La Chapelle de Québec, Les Arts Florissants, Les Violons du Roy, Philharmonia Baroque, Salzburg Pfingstfestspiele, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Theater an der Wien
