PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle
PRESS KIT
for the presentation of the 2018 Handel Festival programme,
a music festival in authentic venues
in the city of George Frideric Handel’s birth,
Halle an der Saale
November 15, 2017, 11am, Chamber Music Hall of Handel House
Grosse Nikolaistrasse 5, D-06108 Halle (Saale)
With: Dr. Bernd Wiegand, Mayor of the City of Halle / President of the Handel House Foundation Board of Trustees
Dr. Jürgen Fox, Chairman of the Executive Board, Saalesparkasse /
Members of the Board of Trustees of the Handel House Halle Foundation
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hirschmann, Professor at the Institute of Music at Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg / President of the Handel House Halle Foundation Advisory Council / President of Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft Internationale Vereinigung e. V.
Clemens Flämig, Musical Director of Stadtsingechor zu Halle
Astrid Wessler, Press and Public Relations Manager Lotto-Toto GmbH Sachsen-Anhalt
Clemens Birnbaum, Director of the Handel House Foundation /Executive Director of the Handel Festival Halle
Musical accompaniment:
Stadtsingechor zu Halle conducted by Clemens Flämig
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Dir will ich singen ewiglich (one of the Chandos Anthems My song shall be alwayHWV 252)
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767)
Das ist meine FreudeTWV 8:17
Johann Heinrich Rolle (1716–1785)
Gott ist unsre Zuversicht und Stärke
Contents
2018 Handel Festival “Foreign Worlds” Pages 3 - 4
Operas at the Handel Festival Pages 5 - 7
Other staged performances Page 8
Oratorios and sacred music Pages 9 - 10
World premieres and new productions Pages 10 - 11
Gala concerts with international stars Pages 12 - 13
The Handel Festival breaks new ground Pages 13 - 14
A new partnership: Handel Festival Halle and the
London Handel Festival are working together Page 15
International Academic Conference Page 15
Admission-free and family events Pages 15 - 16
“Foreign Worlds” – reflections on the festival theme Pages 17 - 18
Visitor information and information on ticket sales Page 18
2018 Handel Prize winner Page 19
The Handel House Foundation museums during
the festival Page 20
Facts and figures Pages 21 - 22
Patrons and sponsors Page 23
Inserts:
Press release by Lotto-Toto GmbH Sachsen-Anhalt
Press release by HWG Hallesche Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH
Press release by Stadtwerke Halle GmbH
2018 Handel Festival: “Foreign Worlds”
International advance ticket sales start on November 24, 2017
From May 25-June 10, 2018, Halle an der Saale will once again be the scene of a glittering Handel Festival. Under the title “Foreign Worlds”, during the 17 days of the festival more than 100 events making up the main and secondary programmes will be taking place in and around the city of the composer’s birth in celebration of its great son while also providing some extraordinary musical experiences in authentic venues.
The new production of Berenice, Regina d’Egitto, HWV 38, at Halle Opera on the first day of the festival will close the final gap in the repertoire after nearly 100 years: all 42 of the composer’s operas will then have been performed in his home city since the revival of Handel’s operas began, with Orlando, in the year 1922. This first performance of Berenice, Regina d’Egitto is based on the Halle Handel Edition – just like a further eight works. The Handel Festival will be presenting 15 ECHO Klassik prize winners in eight operas, three other staged performances, three oratorios, six gala concerts and a number of events that cross all genres. The festival brings together stars of the international Baroque music scene. Among other artists, visitors will have the chance to hear, in live performances, several-time ECHO Klassik and Grammy award winner Joyce DiDonato, sopranos Julia Lezhneva and Sophie Karthäuser, mezzo-sopranos Magdalena Kožená and Ann Hallenberg, alto Nathalie Stutzmann and countertenors Max Emanuel Cencic and Xavier Sabata. Further musical enjoyment will be provided by internationally renowned ensembles such as Il Pomo d’Oro, under the musical direction of Maxim Emelyanychev, John Butt and the Dunedin Consort, and La Cetra Barockorchester conducted by Andrea Marcon. As in past years, bridges will also be built to other music genres, including jazz, electro and rock music. And a number of concerts will be entering into a thrilling musical dialogue with other cultures, such as Turkish and Persian music.
The motto bannering the 2018 Handel Festival, “Foreign Worlds”, will be omnipresent, with the International Academic Conference also turning its attention to this theme. During the course of his life, Handel got to know foreign languages, countries, cultures and religions. In his music he overcame barriers time and again, transporting listeners to faraway places and sometimes even to fairytale worlds. Has Handel’s world now become alien to us? Or is there also much that is familiar to us? We invite you to come and investigate these exciting questions.
The programme also includes an anniversary: in 1968, the Goethe Theatre in Bad Lauchstädt was a venue of the Handel Festival for the first time. During these 50 years, this historic theatre has become an established part of the festival. Next year, the famous Lautten Compagney Berlin under the musical direction of Wolfgang Katschner will be staging Handel’s serenata Parnasso in festa, HWV 73, and the Prague Baroque ensemble Musica Florea the opera pasticcio Muzio Scevola, HWV 13. This will be the first staged performance of Muzio Scevola in its entirety since the eighteenth century. This German premiere will take place at the Carl Maria von Weber Theatre in Bernburg. Bach Consort Wien with Rubén Dubrovsky and selected soloists will be performing Handel’s Oreste, HWV A11.
But the Handel Festival will also be breaking completely new ground in the year ahead. Besides the tried, tested and ever more popular Baroque Lounges, we will for the first time be a holding poetry slam, with the theme of “Foreign Worlds”. Baroque music and poetry slams – what a strange combination. Are they compatible at all? We’re looking forward to finding out, taking our example from Handel.
We will also be developing our partnership with the London Handel Festival. The Handel Singing Competition has already launched many an international singing career. For this first time, two prize winners of the 2017 competition will be presenting a lunchtime concert in Handel House, Halle. Admission is free – as it is for numerous other events at next year’s Handel Festival. For example, visitors can look forward to the 16th Organ Night, a night-time concert, the International Academic Conference, lectures on selected events, Handel for Brass on Domplatz and the Family Festival in the courtyard of Handel House, all admission-free.
Clemens Birnbaum, director of the Handel House Foundation and the Festival’s executive director, is ecstatic: “That is a unique record, unrivalled anywhere in the world: eight different staged Baroque music productions in just 17 days. Visitors can hear works that have not been performed in this way since the eighteenth century, or which are new productions or even world premieres. Moreover, we will be building bridges to other music genres and other cultures. I am delighted that we are once again able to celebrate a great Baroque music festival that is second to none. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the City of Halle, the State of Saxony-Anhalt and the federal government, as well as our numerous partners, patrons and sponsors, of whom I will cite just Lotto Sachsen-Anhalt, Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung and Saalesparkasse. Although “foreignness” is the theme of this year’s festival, all this shows that more than 250 years after Handel’s death the music of the Halle-born composer, far more than alienating us, still touches us as deeply as ever.“
Operas at the Handel Festival
Rinaldo HWV 7b (concert performance, German premiere of the 1731 version, performance based on the Halle Handel Edition)
Muzio Scevola HWV 13 (staged, first stage performance since the eighteenth century)
Giulio Cesare in Egitto HWV 17 (staged, premiere)
Arianna in Creta HWV 32 (concert performance, new production based on the Halle Handel Edition)
Berenice, Regina d‘ Egitto HWV 38 (staged, premiere, new production based on the Halle Handel Edition
Parnasso in festa HWV 73 (staged, premiere, new production based on the Halle Handel Edition
Ormisda HWV A3 (concert performance, German premiere)
Oreste HWV A11 (staged, German premiere of this production by Kammeroper, Theater an der Wien)
In 2018, the Handel Festival will be presenting eight operas, five of which will be staged versions and three concert performances. Nearly 100 years after the first modern performance of Berenice, Regina d’Egitto, HWV 38, all 42 of Handel’s operas will have been performed here. With performances of Ormisda, HWV A3, and Oreste, HWV A11, the series of performances begun in 2012 at the Handel Festival of hitherto largely neglected pasticcio and fragments by Georg Frideric Handel will be continued. All these opera performances have some special claim: some are the first performances in Germany based on the Halle Handel Edition, while others are the first staged productions anywhere in the world since the eighteenth century.
The 2018 Handel Festival will open with the new production of the opera Berenice, Regina d’Egitto, HWV 38, at Halle Opera, based on the Halle Handel Edition. Mistakes, misunderstandings, revenge, power-play and love are all reflected in Handel’s powerful music. The Handel Festival Orchestra Halle will be conducted by Jörg Halubek, who has already made a name for himself as a conductor of Baroque operas. The stage director of this opera, which focuses on the Egyptian queen, Berenice III, is Jochen Biganzoli. He delighted audiences at Halle Opera during the 2016-17 season with his extraordinary and moving production of Puccini’s Tosca. With the performance of the rarely produced opera Berenice, Regina d’Egitto, a special milestone has been attained: all 42 of Handel’s operas will have been performed in Halle.
This new production based on the Halle Handel Edition will be premiered in the historic Goethe Theatre Bad Lauchstädt, which has been a regular venue of the Handel Festival for 50 years. The serenata Parnasso in festa, HWV 73, will be staged by Lautten Compagney Berlin under the musical direction of Handel Prize winner Wolfgang Katschner and a soloist ensemble of choice on May 27, 28, and 29, 2018. The internationally successful specialist of Baroque dance and gesture Sigrid T’Hooft will be bringing to life the nuptials of Thetis and Peleus on Mount Parnassus in a historically informed production of Parnasso in festa. The Goethe Theatre will be decked out in full Baroque splendour for this performance, which is sponsored jointly by Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung and Saalesparkasse and promises to be a feast for the eyes and ears.
“The Handel Festival marks the highpoint of the region’s cultural year and each time round enthuses a keenly interested audience. As longstanding partners, we are proud of its success even beyond the immediate region. Above all we are delighted once again at this performance in the historic Goethe Theatre in Bad Lauchstädt, which makes the festival an experience to be enjoyed not only in the city of Halle, but also in the wider Saale region,” says Dr. Jürgen Fox, Chairman of the Saalesparkasse Executive Board and member of the Board of Trustees of the Handel House Foundation.
One rarely performed work will be staged in the Carl Maria von Weber Theatre in Bernburg: Oreste, HWV A11. In a production based on the Halle Handel Edition and performed for the first time in Germany, the renowned Bach Consort Wien under musical director Rubén Dubrovsky presents this opera pasticcio which deals with the well-known theme of Iphigenia. The Junges Ensemble of Theater an der Wien and Bach Consort Wien deliver a musically gripping performance in a production of great scenographic interest. The performances on June 2 and 3, 2018, in Bernburg are sponsored by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Another rarely heard work, Ormisda, HWV A3 , will be presented by the English early music ensemble, Opera Settecento. Conducted by Leo Duarte these young musicians, who made their much-acclaimed debut at the Handel Festival in 2017, captivate audiences with their performances on period instruments. The vocal support will be provided by a splendid young ensemble of soloists, including prize winners of the London Handel Singing Competition. The London Handel Singing Competition has long been a springboard for international singing careers. This new production, which is being performed for the first time in Germany and sung in the original Italian, is a joint project with the London Handel Festival. For his opera pasticcio that you can hear on May 26, 2018, in the Francke Foundations, Handel compiled and rearranged music by L. Vinci, J. A. Hasse, G. M. Orlandini. Research has found that this is the first time this work has ever been performed in Germany.
The second, largely unknown version of the opera Rinaldo, HWV 7b, of 1731 can be heard in a concert performance on June 3, 2018, in George Frideric Handel Hall with international prize-winning soloists such as Jason Bridges Sandrine Piau, Xavier Sabata and Christopher Lowrey. Kammerorchester Basel, one of the world’s top Baroque orchestras, will accompany the singers, conducted by Christophe Rousset. Catalan countertenor Xavier Sabata, who is a very familiar guest in Halle, will play the role of Rinaldo. Another member of this excellent cast of singers who certainly deserves a mention is the outstanding French soprano, Sandrine Piau. The popular story of the knight Rinaldo marked Handel’s highly acclaimed debut in London. Many years and several revisions later, Handel staged the opera once again. With such excellent musicians, this new production of the 1731 version, based on the Halle Handel Edition, is set to become a reference.
Muzio Scevola, HWV 13, can be heard on June 8, 9 and 10, 2018, in a staged production featuring the Prague Baroque ensemble Musica Florea and the ballet dancers of the Hartig Ensemble in the Goethe Theatre, Bad Lauchstädt. This is the first staged performance of the work since the eighteenth century. Three composers worked on this opera pasticcio. It is suspected today that Giovanni Bononcini, the less well-known Filippo Amadei and George Frideric Handel worked simultaneously on it for reasons of time. But it is also thought that the diplomat Friedrich von Fabrice had the idea of a competition and that a draw decided who would compose which act. Handel drew the lot for Act 3 and at the premiere reaped the greatest applause from the audience. Act 1 was written by Amadei and Act 2 by Bononcini. The musicians of Musica Florea and the dancers of the Hartig Ensemble already delighted audiences at last year’s festival with their performance of Terpsicore in the Carl Maria von Weber Theatre in Bernburg. Director Laurent Charoy, who has already worked with director Benjamin Lazar on several occasions and also studied the Baroque gesture of language under him, is known for his historically inspired stage performances. This new production of Muzio Scevola is sponsored by Mitteldeutsche Barockmusik e. V. Tickets for the performances in the Goethe Theatre entitle you to free admission to the permanent exhibitions “Neues Schillerhaus” (New Schiller House) and “Badegeschichte im Douche Pavillon” (History of Spa in the Douche Pavilion) on the day of the concert.