Saul
A spectacular opera production with spectacular stage images and music
Barrie Kosky's award-winning production of Handel's Saul is an opera experience in a class of its own, with lavish period costumes, picturesque tableaux, and magnificent music.
Saul is the best opera Handel wrote—an intense, dramatic, magnificent musical tour de force that combines the best of two worlds.
Almost by chance, Handel 1732 Handel created the genre that would define the rest of his life and career – the oratorio. A few years earlier, Handel had Handel his Coronation Anthems for the coronation of George II, and the music's grand, dramatic effect had taken London by storm (many will recognize Zadok the Priest, which was performed at Crown Prince Frederik's wedding in 2004 by Concerto Copenhagen). So when Handel declining interest in his Italian operas, it was natural to try something new. And that something new was the dramatic oratorio. An oratorio typically has a plot, but it is based on biblical events and characters, and therefore unsuitable for presentation on a theater stage as scenic figures. But it provided an opportunity for music that took the best of both worlds – the intense drama of opera and the grandeur of church anthems. And then it was sung in English, rather than in Italian, which was unfamiliar to many.
Handel to music the Old Testament story of Saul, who becomes so jealous of the young David that he cracks and, like King Lear, ends up in a madness of Shakespearean proportions. This provides ample opportunity for the intense, dramatic, and emotional arias we know from Handel's operas, such as David's aria "Oh Lord, whose mercies numberless"and Michal's "Oh Godlike Youth, " both in the first act. And since the plot includes both soldiers and large crowds cheering both the king and the hero David, there is also room for many magnificent choral movements, including a Hallelujah chorus that is every bit as good as the more famous Hallelujah chorus in the oratorio Messiah. And as if that weren't enough, "Saul" also features iconic music for the orchestra alone. The most famous is probably the death march in Act III, which has later been used at the funerals of statesmen such as Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.
Saul is sung by English bass-baritone Christopher Purves, and David by Danish countertenor Morten Grove Frandsen. Star director Barrie Kosky has created the staging, which features lots of dancing and costumes with wow effects, added to spectacular scenography and an entire stage floor covered with flickering candles.
In order to fill the entire Opera House with Handel's music, Concerto Copenhagen will perform with an orchestra 43 musicians, which, in addition to strings, consists of flutes, oboes, bassoons, trumpets, trombones, timpani, lute, harp – and a glockenspiel! All this will be conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
Saul is sung in English with Danish and English surtitles.
A spectacular opera production with spectacular stage images and music
Barrie Kosky's award-winning production of Handel's Saul is an opera experience in a class of its own, with lavish period costumes, picturesque tableaux, and magnificent music.
Saul is the best opera Handel wrote—an intense, dramatic, magnificent musical tour de force that combines the best of two worlds.
Almost by chance, Handel 1732 Handel created the genre that would define the rest of his life and career – the oratorio. A few years earlier, Handel had Handel his Coronation Anthems for the coronation of George II, and the music's grand, dramatic effect had taken London by storm (many will recognize Zadok the Priest, which was performed at Crown Prince Frederik's wedding in 2004 by Concerto Copenhagen). So when Handel declining interest in his Italian operas, it was natural to try something new. And that something new was the dramatic oratorio. An oratorio typically has a plot, but it is based on biblical events and characters, and therefore unsuitable for presentation on a theater stage as scenic figures. But it provided an opportunity for music that took the best of both worlds – the intense drama of opera and the grandeur of church anthems. And then it was sung in English, rather than in Italian, which was unfamiliar to many.
Handel to music the Old Testament story of Saul, who becomes so jealous of the young David that he cracks and, like King Lear, ends up in a madness of Shakespearean proportions. This provides ample opportunity for the intense, dramatic, and emotional arias we know from Handel's operas, such as David's aria "Oh Lord, whose mercies numberless"and Michal's "Oh Godlike Youth, " both in the first act. And since the plot includes both soldiers and large crowds cheering both the king and the hero David, there is also room for many magnificent choral movements, including a Hallelujah chorus that is every bit as good as the more famous Hallelujah chorus in the oratorio Messiah. And as if that weren't enough, "Saul" also features iconic music for the orchestra alone. The most famous is probably the death march in Act III, which has later been used at the funerals of statesmen such as Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.
Saul is sung by English bass-baritone Christopher Purves, and David by Danish countertenor Morten Grove Frandsen. Star director Barrie Kosky has created the staging, which features lots of dancing and costumes with wow effects, added to spectacular scenography and an entire stage floor covered with flickering candles.
In order to fill the entire Opera House with Handel's music, Concerto Copenhagen will perform with an orchestra 43 musicians, which, in addition to strings, consists of flutes, oboes, bassoons, trumpets, trombones, timpani, lute, harp – and a glockenspiel! All this will be conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
Saul is sung in English with Danish and English surtitles.
PROGRAM
Handel: Saul, HWV 53
CONCERTS
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