Friday, March 25, 8.00pm
Sunday,
March 27, 8.00pm
NEC's Jordan
Hall
Grant
Llewellyn, conductor
Kendra Colton, soprano
CLICK
HERE to listen to Music Director Grant Llewellyn
discuss this program.
Handel began composing operas when he was
eighteen, and only stopped when it became clear that the
English audiences wouldn't listen to Italian singers; then
he invented the English oratorio, which were essentially
operas on sacred themes. Throughout his career, he worked
closely with the singers he was writing for, and designed
his arias with their voices in mind: Margherita Durastanti,
Anna Strada, Francesca Cuzzoni, Faustina Bordoni, Susannah
Cibber, all worked – sometimes
tempestuously – with Handel. This program brings together
some of Handel's most brilliant and affecting arias
for soprano, culled from his operas.
For further information:
http://gfhandel.org/
A
wealth of information and links about the composer
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/handel.html
A
good short biography and link to good portrait gallery
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