The opera was apparently written in less than three weeks, between Giulio Cesare <\/em>and Rodelinda<\/em>, for the Royal Academy of Music\u2019s sixth season at the Haymarket theatre. In some respects it can be viewed as an attempt to jump on the bandwagon of Orientalism, fashionable in Britain at the time, as well as a nod to the Academy\u2019s wealthiest benefactors, who were associated with the East India Company \u2013 soon to become the main driving force of British imperial power. On the other hand, however, Tamerlano <\/em>seems to be a sentimental journey to the Italy of the composer\u2019s youth. This may explain the self-quotations from Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno <\/em>and La Resurrezione<\/em> present in the score, and, above all, the idea of entrusting the key role of Bajazet to a tenor voice \u2013 first used by Alessandro Scarlatti in Il gran Tamerlano <\/em>of 1706, and then in several versions of Francesco Gasparini\u2019s opera.<\/p>\n George Petrou. Photo: FreddieF<\/p>\n In 1724, when Handel\u2019s opera was premiered, Londoners were already accustomed to the November tradition of staging Nicholas Rowe\u2019s tragedy Tamerlane<\/em> on William of Orange\u2019s birthday and the anniversary of the bloodless revolution that began the following day, shortly after the Dutch prince\u2019s arrival in England in 1688. In Rowe\u2019s play the eponymous Tamerlane, that is the Mongol ruler Timur the Lame, turned out to be an allegory of William himself, an enlightened philosopher king. The villain was Bayezid, the Ottoman sultan captured by Timur after the Battle of Ankara and a personification of King Louis XIV of France, hated by William. This may have been the reason why the audience felt confused by the story being presented in Handel\u2019s opera from a slightly different perspective, with Haym\u2019s libretto drawing on both Scarlatti\u2019s opera and Gasparini’s Tamerlano<\/em>, whose librettist, Agostino Piovene, in turn relied on Jacques Pradon\u2019s French tragedy. Handel backed this tale of a clash between two barbarian titans with his own musical genius, creating a work astonishing in the psychological depth of its characters \u2013 ambiguous, often repulsive, arousing sympathy streaked with grotesque and horror.<\/p>\n The indefatigable Rosetta Cucci \u2013 who has been associated with Wexford Festival Opera for years, since 2020 as and the festival\u2019s artistic director, and is also active as an accompanist and stage director \u2013 explained in the description of her staging concept for Tamerlano<\/em> that she intended to move away from historical truth and create a universal drama. A puzzling statement given that all modern directors of Baroque operas do so, not to mention the fact that there was never any historical truth in Tamerlano.<\/em> Instead, we have the truth of emotions and superbly drawn relationships between the six protagonists in the score, highlighted by an almost classical unity of time and place \u2013 the action takes place just after the battle lost by Bajazet, in the palace taken over by his vanquisher in Bursa, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Cucci has set the story in a claustrophobic space painted with black and bright white light (set design by Tiziano Santi, costumes by Claudia Pernigotti, lighting by Ernst Schiessl), suspended between a dream, allegory and vision of a quite modern dictatorship. I have seen dozens of similar takes on pre-Romantic opera in my life, most of them over a quarter of a century ago at the old Warsaw Chamber Opera. They were, however, mostly clearer and more closely related to the music \u2013 and music, in the case of the drama\u2019s two main protagonists, gives the director more than enough clues as to what to do with them on stage.<\/p>\n Yet Cucci, contrary to the score, sees Tamerlano as a bloodthirsty monster devoid of any human qualities and has turned Bajazet into an archetypal victim. She has made up for the bucolic element missing in the opera by having Asteria wear an idyllic costume and Andronico change at one point his prince\u2019s military uniform for a white robe. She has added to the cast seven mime actors, entrusting them with the role of pricks of Tamerlano\u2019s conscience or perhaps his urges and fantasies, shamefully pushed deep into the subconscious. She has also introduced additional plots (including that of Leone\u2019s rejected courtship of Irene) and a whole host of unnecessary props that, instead of clarifying the complicated narrative, make it even more confusing.<\/p>\n This affected especially the character of Tamerlano, constructed with dedication \u2013 in line with the director’s intentions \u2013 by Lawrence Zazzo, a fine actor and an even better singer, whose colourful, typically masculine countertenor has already lost some precision and volume, but still retains great power of expression. The key character of Bajazet was rescued \u2013 paradoxically \u2013 by Juan Sancho\u2019s fiery stage temperament, fully revealed in the aria \u201cEmpio, per farti guerra\u201d and the protagonist\u2019s death scene \u2013 jagged, swinging between despair, hallucination and calm in the face of the looming end. Yet this magnificent role, which Handel wrote for Francesco Borosini, who had earlier triumphed in Bajazet<\/em>, another version of Gasparini\u2019s Tamerlano<\/em>, requires a slightly different type of voice. Borosini had a very extensive range and moved confidently even in the bass tessitura. Sancho had to make up for the lack of volume at the bottom with some excellent acting.<\/p>\n Tamerlano.\u00a0<\/em>Juan Sancho as Bajazet. Photo: Alciro Theodoro da Silva<\/p>\n Towering above the rest of the cast in vocal terms was Yuriy Mynenko as Andronico. His countertenor, now fully developed, round at the top and smoothly moving to sonorous, natural tenor notes at the lower end of the range, predisposes him to most of the roles written for Senesino, who had similar assets. Slightly less impressive was Louise Kem\u00e9ny, whose soprano is soft and rich in colours, but no longer fresh enough for the role of Asteria. Dara Savinova was better as Irene, a role she sang with a dark and velvety mezzo-soprano, exceptionally secure intonation-wise. I am not at all surprised that Petrou, following the example of several of his predecessors, reinstated Leone\u2019s aria \u201cNell\u2019 mondo e nell\u2019 abisso\u201d removed by Handel \u2013 even if only for the sake of Sreten Manojlovic and his warm basso cantante<\/em>, marked by a hint of melancholy, the beauty and technical excellence of which fully justify the slight deviation from the composer\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n Thus, the unconvincing staging failed to undermine the success of the G\u00f6ttingen Tamerlano<\/em>, to which also contributed the FestspielOrchester, led by Petrou with his usual passion, with an unerring sense of the pulse and rhythm of the music, without unnecessarily \u201csmoothing\u201d it at the edges. I suspect that Petrou was just as passionate in conducting the other staple of the festival programme, a Handel oratorio.<\/p>\n I could not make it to this year\u2019s Solomon<\/em>, but I rushed straight from the train to a gala concert at the Stadthalle, featuring the same orchestra and Ann Hallenberg, the legendary Swedish mezzo-soprano, a pupil of Kerstin Meyer, remembered for her recording of Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 3 <\/em>under John Barbirolli. Hallenberg won acclaim mainly in pre-Romantic repertoire, and although she performs less frequently these days, her mature voice has retained all the qualities of her youth: golden colour, excellent breath control and stylish, flowing phrasing. To give the singer some breathers and to highlight her strengths all the more effectively, Petrou put together a programme alternating between Handel\u2019s arias, and Vivaldi\u2019s concertos and sonatas. It was a true greatest hits concert, during which I enjoyed \u201cVenti, turbini, prestate\u201d from Rinaldo<\/em> as much as the soloists\u2019 excellent collaboration with the conductor and the entire ensemble (special credit should go to the concertmistress Elizabeth Blumenstock and the bassoonist Alexadros Oikonomou).<\/p>\n Galakonzert. Ann Hallenberg, George Petrou and FestspielOrchester G\u00f6ttingen. Photo: Alciro Theodoro da Silva<\/p>\n There were also, as usual, lectures and symposia, there were events for children, there was a competition for young performers of Baroque music, there was morning music from the tower at St. James\u2019 (played by the carillonist Martin Begemann) and a host of other events, including afternoon recitals in G\u00f6ttingen churches. I will especially remember the performance by Stefan Kordes, organist at the St. Jacobi parish, who, playing on an instrument from the local workshop of Paul Ott, presented not only works by Bach, Messiaen and Elgar, but also fascinating transcriptions of Wagner\u2019s \u201cO, du mein holder Abendstern\u201d and Ride of the Valkyries by Edwin Lemare, one of the most popular and influential organists of the turn of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n George Petrou attracts new regulars to the H\u00e4ndel Festspiele, using by all possible means. This year he decided to give them a G\u00f6ttingen version of the Last Night of The Proms, featuring the Jacobikantorei and the G\u00f6ttinger Symphonieorchester conducted by its head Nicholas Milton. Everything was as it should be: Edward Elgar\u2019s Pomp and Circumstance<\/em> at the beginning, Hubert Parry\u2019s Jerusalem<\/em> and Henry Wood\u2019s Fantasia on British Sea Songs<\/em> at the end, and in between Handel, of course, Londonderry Air<\/em> as well as many other musical delights. The encores were crowned with the fiery Brazilian rumba Tico-Tico no fub\u00e1<\/em>.<\/p>\n I honestly admit: I sang Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free<\/em> with everyone else. I clapped to the rhythm of Hornpipe<\/em> \u2013 encouraged by Milton, who conducted the whole thing with a sense of humour and energy worthy of Leonard Bernstein. Difficult times have come. The world is breaking in our hands. To refer once again to Otto Bierbaum\u2019s words: \u201cHumor ist, wenn man trotzdem lacht\u201d. There is nothing else to do but laugh in spite of the difficulties.<\/p>\n Translated by: Anna Kijak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The motto of this year\u2019s H\u00e4ndel-Festspiele G\u00f6ttingen was \u201cLorbeeren\u201d or laurels. For thousands of years laurel wreaths have adorned the temples of not only victorious commanders, but also poets, scholars and artists. Laurel is an attribute of Apollo, the god of beauty, life and light. Yet the price of splendour and glory is often suffering: … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-mangusta","4":"post-8903","6":"format-standard","7":"category-posts-in-english","8":"category-wedrowki-operowe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8903"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8908,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8903\/revisions\/8908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_George-Petrouc_FreddieF-scaled.jpg\")
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