Triumphantly premiered in 1724 at the King’s Theatre in London, George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto masterfully combines human emotions: Triumph with sorrow, despair with happiness and love with profound melancholy in the face of the transience of all earthly life. Star director Keith Warner creates a production that imaginatively blends silent film and baroque opera, delightfully echoing Mankiewicz’s legendary Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton. An excellent cast of singers is led by two of the world’s leading countertenors: Bejun Mehta and Christophe Dumaux. Louise Alder shines as the seductive Cleopatra. Patricia Bardon, Simon Bailey and Jake Arditti are further highlights in this extraordinary group of singers, while Ivor Bolton provides the appropriate soundtrack on the podium of the Concentus Musicus Wien. “Cheers for all involved” / “Many of the excellent singing actors present themselves in top form.” Kurier “A must for baroque opera fans.” Kronen Zeitung
Theodora
George Frideric Handl´s oratorio Theodora, in it´s first-ever staged version at Salzburg Festival, was among the highlights of Handel Year 2009. Acclaimed director Christoph Loy presented Theodora as the profoundly moving tale of a woman who prefers death to denying her faith, an interpretation captivated with bravura by world-renowned video director Hannes Rossacher. A luminous Christine Schaefer and countertenor Bejun Mehta formed a perfect leading couple altoghether suited to conductor Ivor Bolton´s vigorous reading. “With Christine Schaefer, Salzburg has found an ideal singer for the title role.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Messiah
To mark the 250th anniversary of Handel´s death, Vienna´s Theater an der Wien realized a truly extraordinary project: the staging of Messiah, the composer´s most popular oratorio.Collaborating with an exquisite cast of singers, Claus Guth, one of today´s highly renowned stage directors, delivered “an emotionally and psychologically charged sequence of images … “The audience was thrilled” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Hosokawa: Stilles Meer
Under the baton of Kent Nagano, the Philharmoniker Hamburg performed the eagerly awaited world premiere of the opera Stilles Meer by Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa, starring superb singers as the world famous countertenor Bejun Mehta. Stilles Meer transfers a prominent theme of the Japanese dance theatre, Sumidagawa, into the setting of Fukushima, picturing the grief of a German woman who lost her boy and her husband during the Tsunami that attacked Fukushima in March 2011 and her unrelievable sorrow not being able to accept that reality. “The orchestra plays [for Kent Nagano] with delicate precision. Susanne Elmark sings with clarity and warmth. Bejun Mehta infuses his lines with affectingly bittersweet melancholy. ” (Financial Times).
Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Triumphantly premiered in 1724 at the King’s Theatre in London, George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto masterfully combines human emotions: Triumph with sorrow, despair with happiness and love with profound melancholy in the face of the transience of all earthly life. Star director Keith Warner creates a production that imaginatively blends silent film and baroque opera, delightfully echoing Mankiewicz’s legendary Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton. An excellent cast of singers is led by two of the world’s leading countertenors: Bejun Mehta and Christophe Dumaux. Louise Alder shines as the seductive Cleopatra. Patricia Bardon, Simon Bailey and Jake Arditti are further highlights in this extraordinary group of singers, while Ivor Bolton provides the appropriate soundtrack on the podium of the Concentus Musicus Wien. “Cheers for all involved” Kurier. “A must for baroque opera fans.” Kronen Zeitung
Handel, Messiah
On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death, Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, famous for innovative and unconventional opera productions, realized a unique and truly extraordinary project: the staging of one of Handel’s most popular oratorios. For this production, the theater signed up one of the most renowned stage directors of our time, Claus Guth. The result: ‘An emotionally and psychologically charged sequence of images’, as the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote about Guth’s portrayal of a family dynasty, complete with guilt, betrayal, suicide and reconciliation.
Theodora
A highlight of the Handel commemorative year (250th anniversary of death) was the Salzburg Festival’s first-ever staging of Handel’s oratorio “Theodora” of 1750. Christof Loy, who was voted “director of the year” three times by the prestigious journal “Opernwelt”, created a production that is, in his words, “almost as an installation”, and groups his characters around the remains of a gigantic organ in situations that echo the libretto’s tragic dilemma of love, faith and virtue. His concept is supported by the vigorous Ivor Bolton and the Freiburger Barockorchester playing on original instruments, the Salzburger Bachchor, and, above all, by a fine cast. It is led by the luminous Christine Schäfer as a Theodora who “perfectly encapsulates the heroine’s combination of fragility and defiance” (AFP), and countertenor Bejun Mehta, who “excels as Theodora’s lover Didymus” (The New York Times).
Mitridate, Re di Ponto (Mozart 22)
Widely acclaimed as one of the absolute top productions of the Mozart 22 cycle in Salzburg, “Mitridate” has everything going for it. It is a wild story of erotic desire, jealousy, intrigue and betrayal; a dramatically focused staging that does full justice to the conflicted relations; a cast of singers who are all of the highest caliber; and a sensational musical ensemble led by a singularly powerful and charismatic conductor. Indeed, the real star of this production is conductor Marc Minkowski, who is famed for his recordings of Baroque music with his ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble, who also play on this recording. It is nothing less than phenomenal how Minkowski storms into the score and unleashes raw emotions encompassing everything from happiness and tenderness to madness and murderous jealousy. As he plumbs the depths of this music, he carries his singers on his orchestra’s richly nuanced fabric, whips them along impetuously, and envelops them in opulent sounds. In stage director Günter Krämer and his set designer Jürgen Bäckmann, Minkowski found partners on a par with his vibrant talent. Through cleverly placed mirrors, Krämer reveals what’s going on “behind the scenes” at the same time that we see what is occurring before our eyes – a breathtaking layering of the events that illuminates the characters’ psychology in a subtle manner. “Mitridate” is the first major opera seria of the 14-year-old Mozart, and its plot typical of this genre, which had its heyday in the mid to late 18th century. King Mitridate, blinded by his lust for power, believes his sons Farnace and Sifare, as well as his betrothed Aspasia, are betraying him. He wants to put them to the test by staging his own death. The two sons, who want to go their own ways, are thus forced to oppose their father, even as they long for his love. Mitridate is ready to sacrifice all three – but in the end, he is the only one who dies.