Autumn Trilogy: L’invisibil fa vedere Amore
Messiah
music by Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
oratorio in three parts for soloists, choir, and orchestra to text by Charles Jennens
(first performance Dublino, New Music Hall, 13 April 1742)
Edition Bärenreiter
Alysia Hanshaw soprano
Delphine Galou contralto
Žiga Čopi tenor
Christian Senn bass
Ottavio Dantone conductor
Accademia Bizantina
Coro della Cattedrale di Siena “Guido Chigi Saracini”
choirmaster Lorenzo Donati
Three different operas on the same stage on successive days, an ingenious and adaptable stage mechanism, an experienced technical crew ready to meet any challenge: this is the unmistakable trademark of the Autumn Trilogy, an essential part of the Festival for years now, always focusing on different periods and styles of opera. Once again, walking the tightrope stretched across the centuries, we pay homage to one of the undisputed ‘fathers’ of our music, an incomparable composer and dramatic genius, a contemporary of Bach, equally great and ‘modern’, but committed to other horizons and, above all, to the theatre. From his extraordinary catalogue, we have selected the three parts of our ‘triptych’, created through the collaboration of Pizzi’s visionary rigour and Dantone’s undoubted talent, which will evoke the ideal and timeless world of the chivalric epic.
«For what we see Love re-creates anew,/ And makes all that we dream of visible»: love and madness, courage and imagination, a tangle of passions that animate the immortal heroes of Ariosto’s famous poem Orlando Furioso, the source of Handel’s operas. Heroes portrayed in the most fragile aspect of their human nature, vulnerable to the power of love that clouds their judgement and the power of magic that confuses their intentions. Heroes who, in their madness, manage to rise above the material weight of life and transcend reality to the point of understanding it in its essence: they imagine that ideal world, which may be unattainable, but which is the driving force behind all progress. How relevant this is, almost three centuries after Orlando and Alcina were written! The same relevance of the Messiah, which, in its wonderful blend of all European styles, continues to give us a sense of hope today.
With the free app Lyri the surtitles are available on your smartphone, live in Italian and English
Running time:
first part 50’ – interval 20’ – second part 1h 20’
Running time 2h 30’
