A spectacular opera production with stunning visuals and music
Barrie Kosky’s award-winning production of Handel’s *Saul* is an opera experience in a class of its own, featuring lavish period costumes, picturesque tableaux, and magnificent music.
“Saul” is the best opera Handel wrote—an intense, dramatic, and magnificent musical tour de force that combines the best of both 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 none other than Concerto Copenhagen). So when Handel waning interest in his Italian operas, it made sense to try something new. And that became 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 stage figures. But it offered an opportunity for music that took the best of both worlds—the intense drama of opera and the grandeur of church anthems. And so it was sung in English, rather than in Italian, which was foreign to many.
Handel to music the Old Testament story of Saul, who becomes so jealous of the young David that he breaks down and, like King Lear, descends into madness of Shakespearean proportions. This provides ample opportunity for the intense, dramatic, and emotionally charged 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 pieces, including a Hallelujah chorus that is every bit as impressive 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 from Act 3, which has later been used at the funerals of statesmen such as Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.
Saul is sung by the English bass-baritone Christopher Purves, and David by the Danish countertenor Morten Grove Frandsen. Star director Barrie Kosky has created the production, which features plenty of dance and costumes with wow factors, complemented by spectacular set design and an entire stage floor covered in flickering candles.
To fill the entire Opera House with Handel’s music, Concerto Copenhagen will perform with an orchestra 43 musicians, comprising not only strings but also flutes, oboes, bassoons, trumpets, trombones, timpani, lute, harp—and a carillon! The ensemble is led by Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
"Saul" is sung in English with Danish and English subtitles.
Listen to some of the music here!