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HANDEL, G.F.: Saul (Staged Version) (Theater an der Wien, 2021) (Blu-ray, HD)
George Frideric Handel
SAUL (Staged Version)
(Blu-ray Disc Version)
Saul - Florian Boesch
David - Jake Arditti
Merab - Anna Prohaska
Michal - Giulia Semenzato
Jonathan - Rupert Charlesworth
Abner / High Priest / Doeg - David Webb
Witch of Endor - Rafał Tomkiewicz
Amalekite - Andrew Morstein
Arnold Schoenberg Choir
(chorus master: Erwin Ortner)
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Christopher Moulds, conductor
Claus Guth, stage director
Christian Schmidt, costume and set designer
Bernd Purkrabek, lighting designer
Ramses Sigl, choreographer
Recorded live at the Theater an der Wien, April 2021
Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Audio language: English
Subtitles: English, German, French, Korean, Japanese
Booklet notes: English, French, German
Running time: 158 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 50)
Note: This Blu-ray Disc is playable only on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players
Also available on DVD (805508)
HANDEL, G.F.: Saul (Staged Version) (Theater an der Wien, 2021) (NTSC) UNITEL Edition 805508
HANDEL, G.F.: Saul (Staged Version) (Theater an der Wien, 2021) (Blu-ray, HD) UNITEL Edition 805604
The music performed by the Freiberg Barok is done with excellent taste and refinement. Conductor Christopher Moulds leads his group with discipline and a good sense of Handel’s sometimes rapid-fire sections, merging each into a seamless whole. The intonation is excellent, and the fast passages done in a crisp and clean manner. Moreover, I find the contrasts between recitative, accompagnato, aria, and chorus done with easy transitions in between, so that one sees the drama unfold musically with continuity and fine pacing. The Arnold Schoenberg Choir is also excellent, with clear and precise diction, its blend lending power in “How excellent thy name” and “Gird on my sword,” pathos in “Mourn Israel,” and admonitory declamation in “O fatal consequence of rage.” Countertenor Arditti has a fine and flexible voice that is powerful even in the higher registers. His “Your words, O King” is swift and pointed, while his magnificent “O haughty beauties,” with all three of Saul’s children fawning over him quite erotically, is done with sonorous ease. When he sings with Semenzato in “O fairest of ten thousand fair,” the blend of voices is riveting. Tenor Charlesworth has a fine and flexible tenor voice, and he expresses considerable emotion in his “No, cruel Father, no,” while his “Birth and fortune I despise” shows his skill at navigating Handel’s sometimes tortuous lines. …the bass of Florian Boesch is resonant and expressive. In his “As great Jehovah lives” he is solemn and reticent, while in his “A serpent in my boson warm’d” he attacks this brief music with power and resolution.
As a recording this would have received one of my highest recommendations, as it is performed by all concerned with the sort of expression that the oratorio’s music requires. © 2023 Fanfare Read complete review
HANDEL, G.F.: Saul (Staged Version) (Theater an der Wien, 2021) (NTSC) 805508
HANDEL, G.F.: Saul (Staged Version) (Theater an der Wien, 2021) (Blu-ray, HD) 805604
As theater, it bristles with imaginative insights, and musically, it’s top-notch.
Christopher Moulds conducts the period forces of the Freiburger Barockorchester in a crisp, dramatically alert reading, every element of Handel’s sumptuous orchestration crystal clear. The Arnold Schoenberg Chor are superbly disciplined, both at projecting the interweaving choral lines and handling coordinated physical movement. With telling video direction by Tiziano Mancini and excellently engineered sound, this is an outstanding presentation in every respect. © 2022 Opera News Read complete review
HANDEL, G.F.: Saul (Staged Version) (Theater an der Wien, 2021) (NTSC) UNITEL Edition 805508
HANDEL, G.F.: Saul (Staged Version) (Theater an der Wien, 2021) (Blu-ray, HD) UNITEL Edition 805604
Händels „Saul“ als packendes Familiendrama
Der Komponist Händel hatte bereits eine große Zahl an erfolgreichen Opern geschrieben, als sich der musikalische Trend der Zeit ab ca. 1730 wandelte, und das Publikum eher nach Oratorien verlangte. Für den flexiblen Tonsetzer war das kein Problem, wobei man Händels Oratorien durchaus den Opernkomponisten anmerkt, was ja kein Nachteil ist.
Auch beim Oratorium „Saul“, kurz vor dem besonders erfolgreichen „Messias“ entstanden, bleibt die musikalische Dramaturgie einer Oper präsent. So bietet sich wie bei nicht wenige der Oratorien Händels eine szenische Aufführung an.
Im Theater an der Wien nahm sich Claus Guth im letzten Jahr des Werkes an und realisierte mit einem sehr homogenen Ensemble von Solisten eine überzeugende, starke Deutung in Form einer Familienaufstellung. Die Familie König Sauls verfällt der Verzauberung durch den einfachen Knaben David, der sich anschickt, durch seine Heldentaten den König zu übertrumpfen. Währen Saul versucht, David zu töten, erliegen seine drei Kinder dem Charisma des Jünglings.
Guth erzählt diese Geschichte in einfachen, aber aussagekräftigen Bildern, vor allem seiner Personenregie gelingt es, die Geschichte glaubwürdig zu erzählen. Zugute kommen dem Regisseur dabei die starken Persönlichkeiten seiner Hauptdarsteller.
Florian Boesch, Spross der berühmten Wiener Sängerfamilie, zeichnet als Saul das Porträt einer zerrissenen Persönlichkeit, die am meisten an sich selbst leidet und schließlich zerbricht. Darstellerisch wie stimmlich gibt er dem König mit seinem kräftigen Bariton die entsprechende Statur. Sein Gegenspieler ist der britische Countertenor Jake Arditti als David, der seinen schlanken, schön gebildeten Countertenor meisterhaft für die Darstellung dieser charismatischen Figur einsetzt. Dass der junge Sänger gleichzeitig auch eine Augenweide ist, macht seine Wirkung auf die drei Kinder des Königs umso glaubwürdiger.
Ein Höhepunkt der Handlung ist die Szene, in der Jonathan, Merab und Michal beginnen, David zu entkleiden und ihn zu berühren. Rupert Charlesworths Tenor unterscheidet sich deutlich von dem Countertenor Ardittis, ergänzt die Ensembles markant mit seiner kraftvoll eingesetzten Stimme. Die Töchter Sauls werden von Anna Prohaska (Merab) und Giulia Semenzato (Michal) sehr unterschiedlich angelegt, überzeugen stimmlich voll, szenisch bleiben sie ein wenig hinter den starken männlichen Figuren zurück.
Einen wesentlichen Anteil am Gelingen dieser Produktion haben der bestens disponierte Arnold Schönberg Chor und das stilsicher aufspielende Freiburger Barockorchester unter dem Dirigenten Christopher Moulds. Musikalisch wie szenisch hält die Aufführung den Spannungsbogen über die Spieldauer von zweieinhalb Stunden und beschert ein optisches wie akustisches Vergnügen der Extraklasse. © 2022 Klassik begeistert
Florian Boesch has appeared with the Vienna Chamber Opera and in a number of Mozart operas, singing Figaro, Count Almaviva, Don Giovanni, Leporello, Guglielmo and Papageno at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater, the Vienna Volksoper, Opernhaus Zürich, Wuppertal Theater, Staatstheater Stuttgart and the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow. He has been heard at the festivals of Bregenz and Salzburg, where he appeared in Handel’s Radamisto, in Der Rosenkavalier and in Le nozze di Figaro under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He is also a frequent guest on the concert platform, with a repertoire that ranges from Bach to Wolf and Mahler. Engagements have taken him to the Vienna Musikverein, the Vienna and Berlin Konzerthaus, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Styriarte Festival, the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, the Edinburgh Festival, and to Milan, Tokyo, Los Angeles and New York.
As an acclaimed singer of Lieder he has appeared at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Cologne Philharmonic, the Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts, and in Birmingham. He has sung Schubert’s Winterreise in New York City, Tokyo, Leeds, Vienna and Graz, and given recitals at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Wigmore Hall in London, as well as in the BBC Radio 3 lunchtime recitals series.
The countertenor Jake Arditti’s showstealing riches of vocal colour and stage presence, have already brought him widespread critical and public acclaim in such Baroque virtuoso warhorses as Handel’s Rinaldo (Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow), Serse (title role at Longborough Festival Opera), Riccardo Primo (title role at the London Handel Festival), Othniel in Joshua (Opera North) and Sesto in Giulio Cesare (Teatro Colón).
His extended vocal range has also seen him encompass such roles as Amore (Theater an der Wien and Zürich Opera) and Nerone (Pinchgut Opera, Sydney) in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. He sung David in Handel’s Saul (Theater an der Wien), a role debut in a new production directed by Claus Guth, conducted by Laurence Cummings, Apollo in Legrenzi’s La divisione del mondo with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques and Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Halle. He also recorded the role of Ernesto in Vinci’s Gismondo with Parnassus Arts Productions.
Born in the German town of Halle in 1685, Handel studied briefly at the University of Halle before moving to Hamburg in 1703, where he served as a violinist in the opera orchestra and subsequently as harpsichordist and composer. From 1706 to 1710 he was in Italy, where he further developed his mastery of Italian musical style. Appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, the future George I of England, he visited London, where he composed the first London Italian opera, Rinaldo, in 1710 and settled two years later. He enjoyed aristocratic and later royal patronage, and was occupied largely with the composition of Italian opera with varying financial success until the 1740s. He was successful in developing a new form, the English oratorio, which combined the musical felicities of the Italian operatic style with an increased role for the chorus, relative economy of production, and the satisfaction of an English and religious text (elements that appealed to English Protestant sensibilities). In London he won the greatest esteem and exercised an influence that tended to overshadow the achievements of his contemporaries and immediate successors. He died in London in 1759 and was buried in Westminster Abbey in the presence of some 3, 000 mourners.
Operas
Handel wrote over 40 Italian operas, the majority for staging in London. The operatic conventions of the time, restricting subject and form, and the major use of castrato singers in the principal male roles led to a general neglect of this important part of Handel’s work, but the increased cultivation of male soprano and male alto voices and a growing understanding of Handel’s achievement within the limitations of the genre generated a renewed appreciation in recent years. Arias and other operatic excerpts, however, have retained a continued place in vocal and to some extent instrumental repertoire. In particular an aria from the opera Serse of 1738 ‘Ombra mai fù’, popularly known as Handel’s ‘Largo’, has reappeared in every possible arrangement. Other arias are familiar in something approaching their original form. These include ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ (‘Let me weep’) from Rinaldo, Handel’s first opera for London, [ the purple text is redundant, already mentioned in the previous paragraph ] ‘Piangèro la sorte mia’ (‘I shall lament my lot’) from Giulio Cesare and ‘Care selve’ (‘Dear woods’) from Atalanta.
Oratorios
Messiah is by far the best known of all English oratorios. Its three parts deal with the birth, passion and resurrection of Christ, using a text in part derived from the Bible and from the version of the Psalmsfamiliar from the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer. The work was completed and first performed in Dublin in 1742. It was later repeated annually in London in aid of the Foundling Hospital. Israel in Egypt, Judas Maccabaeus, Samson (based on Milton), Saul, Deborah and Solomon are only some of the English oratorios of Handel that are familiar in whole or in part to choirs and audiences, along with Athalia and Esther, based on Racine. To these may be added the secular oratorio Semele, with a text by the dramatist William Congreve, dealing with an episode from classical mythology and including, for a disguised Jupiter, the well-known aria ‘Where’er you walk’. Less familiar are Gideon, Nabal and Tobit, compiled from Handel’s works after his death by his assistant John Christopher Smith, who continued the tradition of oratorio performances that had by then been established.
Church Music
Handel wrote music for the Catholic liturgy in 1707, when he was in Rome. In England, under the patronage of the Duke of Chandos, he wrote a set of anthems, the so-called ‘Chandos’ Anthems. The four Coronation Anthems, written for the coronation of George II in 1727, represent music for a royal ceremonial occasion at its most impressive. Other settings for the Anglican liturgy include the Utrecht Te Deum of 1713, celebrating the Peace of Utrecht, and the Dettingen Te Deum, a celebration of the victory of Dettingen over the French army in 1743.
Secular Vocal and Choral Music
The story of the shepherd and shepherdess Acis and Galatea and the monster Polyphemus forms the basis of the pastoral Acis and Galatea, first performed in 1718. The aria of Polyphemus ‘O ruddier than the cherry’ is in popular baritone repertoire. L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, based on Milton with an additional section of compromise, and completed in 1740, provides at least one popular soprano aria, ‘Sweet bird’. In the earlier part of his career Handel wrote a large number of solo and duo Italian cantatas with instrumental accompaniment, as well as vocal duets and trios with the more economical accompaniment of basso continuo: a chordal and a bass instrument.
Orchestral Music
Since Corelli, a musician who was said to have found Handel’s ‘French’ style alien to Italian tradition, the concerto grosso had continued as the most popular Baroque orchestral form, with a small concertino group, usually of two violins, cello and harpsichord, contrasted with the whole string orchestra (the ripieno). Handel wrote and published in 1739 a set of 12 such concertos, Opus 6, designed originally for strings and continuo. An earlier compilation of six concerti grossi, scored also for wind instruments, had been published in London in 1734. Alexander’s Feast is the name given to one of the concertos first performed with the choral work of that name, a setting of Dryden in celebration of the Feast of St Cecilia, patron saint of music, in 1736. Handel’s 16 organ concertos, the first six included in Opus 4 and a further six in Opus 7, served a practical and novel purpose as interval music, to be played at performances of oratorios. No. 13 is generally known as ‘The Cuckoo and the Nightingale’. Water Music is a set of pieces written in 1717 to entertain George I as he was rowed up the Thames to supper at Chelsea, and Music for the Royal Fireworks, written in 1749, preceded a firework display in Green Park, a celebration of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.
Chamber Music
Music by Handel for smaller groups of performers includes a number of trio sonatas, the majority for two violins and basso continuo, and a number of sonatas for solo instrument and continuo, six for recorder and six for violin. The publisher of the 12 sonatas of Opus 1, from about 1730, described them as for treble instrument and continuo, allowing potential performers a freedom of choice that was not altogether unusual at the time.
Keyboard Music
Handel was as versatile as any musician of his age. He excelled, however, as a keyboard player, judged in an early contest in Rome with the harpsichordist Domenico Scarlatti, with the wisdom of Solomon, as the better organist, while Scarlatti was honoured as the better harpsichordist. Handel left a great deal of keyboard music, most of it for the harpsichord and much of it written early in his career. The first eight suites for harpsichord were published by the composer in 1720, followed in 1733 by a second collection of eight suites assembled largely by the publisher. The G major Chaconne, using a popular Baroque variation form, consists of 62 variations on a simple repeated bass pattern. The Air from Suite No. 5, with its five following variations, has won fame under the title ‘The Harmonious Blacksmith’, a reference to an unlikely anecdote concerning the inspiration of the piece.