PROGRAMMES

IMENEO - Handel's penultimate opera

A love triangle but far from a classical one!  No sooner has Rosmene been saved from pirates than she is forced to choose between two suitors; Tirinto, her fiancé whom she loves; and Imeneo who claims her as his promised reward for rescuing her and the Athenian maidens.  Clomiri, another of the rescued women, is desolate because she knows her secret love for Imeneo is in vain.  The two suitors are torn between jealousy and hot desire.  Tirinto demands that Rosmene remains faithful to her pledge of love, and Imeneo demands that Rosmene shows him justified gratitude for his heroic deed.  In an attempt to buy some time Rosmene fakes an attack of insanity calling on the judge of the underworld for advice.  Forced to be either unfaithful or ungrateful, which suitor will she choose...?

Imeneo assembles a cast of 5 solo singers who also combine for the opera's choruses.  They are supported by a period instrument chamber orchestra and a dancer.
 

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OBBLIGATO

A sumptuously costumed concert of sublime baroque vocal music featuring obbligato violin and cello. 

The concert luxuriates in examples of baroque music for voices and obbligato violin where the instrument plays an important, and indeed ‘obligatory’, part.  The obbligato line is often a virtuosic decoration of the theme and becomes a duetting string voice for the singer but one that is essential to the total effect of the piece.

Programme includes:
TELEMANN - Alto cantata ‘Erquicktes Herz, sei voller Freuden’, and arias and duets from his operas Sancio and Emma und Eginhard
J S BACH - Sonata in G major for violin and continuo (BWV 1021), arias from cantatas 85 and 120, and the uplifting duet ‘Beruft Gott selbst so muss der Segen’.
HANDEL - Chamber duets ‘Tanti strali’ and ‘Conservate, raddoppiate’, Chaconne in G major, and the heart rending soprano aria from Alcina, ‘Credete al mio dolore’
 

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THE DUELLING LOVERS - Handel cantatas for Ruspoli

Three of Handel's early dramatic cantatas for one, two and three voices are staged in a fully costumed concert with a chamber ensemble of continuo (harpsichord and cello), strings and a baroque trumpet.  Composed during Handel's time in Italy, these cantatas were written for his most important Roman patron, the Marchese Francesco Ruspoli.  Handel was the musician in residence at Ruspoli's Palazzo Bonelli in Rome.  The cantatas were performed at the Arcadian Academy of which Ruspoli was a leading member. 

Amarilli Vezzosa (or Il Duello Amoroso) is an encounter between the shepherd Daliso and the shepherdess Amarilli.  The shepherdess once pledged her love to the shepherd but has now changed her mind.  Daliso, resentful at being rejected, threatens to use force to gain his desire.  But he is outsmarted by the wiles of Amarilli who shames him into an apology then mockingly hints that she would have relented if he had only been a little bolder!

Tu fedel?  Tu costante?  is slightly unusual for the baroque period as it tells the story from the woman's point of view.  It deals with the problem of an unfaithful lover, with lots of fire, passion and vengeance!

O come chiare e belle (or Olinto pastore, Tebro fiume, Gloria) represents Rome as the River Tiber and shows the shepherd Olinto calling Glory to raise the Tiber from his declined state at the end of the Roman Empire to renewed magnificence at the start of the Holy Christian Empire.

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MUSIC THROUGH WINDOWS

A semi-staged, fully costumed performance of dramatic scenes witnessed as though passing open windows.  The two singers are accompanied by harpsichord and cello and a recorder ensemble.

• A couple's first stolen embraces after their engagement is promised, only to be broken by an unexpected abduction.  (Handel's Rinaldo)
• An attempted suicide - Believing all is lost, a king attempts to end his pain by taking poison.  His wife arrives in time to switch the poison for a sleeping draught and all is saved.  (Handel's Tolomeo)
• A prison break - A prison guard is swayed by a beautiful prisoner's innocence to break his orders and help obtain her freedom.  (Handel's Theodora)
• A fierce battle of wills - for important (but secret) reasons a husband cannot turn to look at his wife.  His wife, perhaps understandably, cannot comprehend her husband's apparent coldness and a fight ensues... with disastrous consequences.  (Gluck's Orpheus and Euridice)

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LOVE IN VENICE

18th Century Venice was an inspirational location for the pursuit of all artistic activities.  Many masters of the Baroque era composed significant and lasting works in this city. 

With Love in Venice Baroque Encounter celebrates love's joys and torments in virtuosic solo cantatas and charming chamber duets by accomplished composers who found their own inspiration in Venice: Albinoni, Lotti, Handel, Steffani and Vivaldi.  The evening emulates the intimacy and glories of a salon performance with accompaniment by harpsichord and cello by candlelight and the singers are dressed in vivid baroque costume to visually enhance this truly baroque experience.

This programme was recorded live and is available to purchase.  Please see the recordings page.

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PARNASSO IN FESTA - Handel's only true occasional serenata

Apollo and the Muses are on Mount Parnassus, reminiscing historical tales as they prepare for the wedding of the goddess Thetis to the mortal Peleus (later the parents of the hero Achilles).  The goddess Eris, disgruntled at being excluded from the wedding celebrations used a golden apple to incite the vanities of the wedding guests, requiring the judgment of Paris to determine the fairest, which in turn led to the Trojan War!

Handel's wedding serenata was written to celebrate the marriage of the real life Princess Royal, Princess Anne, to the Prince of Orange in 1734.  He borrowed a significant portion of the music from his own English oratorio Athalia and added several newly composed numbers set to a new Italian libretto.  Parnasso features 6 solo singers that also combine to sing the splendid choruses, and 1 baroque dancer. 

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