Opera Review: Zapped!

Handel’s shocking Semele strikes Carnegie Hall.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Lightning rod: Brenda Rae as Semele at Carnegie Hall
Photo by Steve J. Sherman for Carnegie Hall.

One does not always think of Georg Friedrich Handel as a paragon of musical experimentation. On Sunday afternoon, the English Concert, (which is in the middle of presenting an annual cycle of Handel masterpieces at Carnegie Hall) struck down that thesis. This year’s entry is Semele, a hybridization of opera and oratorio. Unusual in that it uses the oratorio formula and an English text (by the poet William Congreve) to tell a mythological tale, Semele flopped in 1744. Today, this work is regarded as one of the composer’s boldest and most impressive achievements. 

Opera Review: What We Got Here is a Crusader

The English Concert performs Rinaldo.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Going for baroque: Iestyn Davies (center) sings the title role in Rinaldo as Harry Bicket (seated, left) conducts.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2018 Carnegie Hall.

In the already esoteric world of opera performance, staging the operas of George Frederic Handel takes the anachronism to the next level. At Carnegie Hall on Sunday, conductor Harry Bicket led The English Concert in the latest of their wildly successful series of Handel operas and oratorios in concert. The latest: Rinaldo, the opera that made Handel's name in London, the city that would become that well-traveled composer's permanent home base.

Concert Review: Martyred, Then Returned to Life

The English Concert presents Handel's Theodora.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A man and his harpsichord: English Concert conductor Harry Bickett.
Photo by Richard Haughton © 2013 The English Concert.

Sometimes a composer's best work escapes the notice of his public. Take, for example Handel's late oratorio Theodora which bombed with the London public after just three performances. On Sunday afternoon at Carnegie Hall, Harry Bickett and the period ensemble The English Concert made a case for Theodora as one of Handel's most compelling stage works.