Saturday Evening, December 1, 2018, at 7:30

The Juilliard School presents Juilliard415 Paul Agnew , Conductor Anneliese Klenetsky , Soprano Mer Wohlgemuth , Soprano Siman Chung , Countertenor

Handel in Rome II

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685 –1759) Clori, Tirsi e Fileno , HWV 96

ANNELIESE KLENETSKY, Clori MER WOHLGEMUTH, Tirsi SIMAN CHUNG, Fileno

Approximate running time: 1 hour and 40 minutes, including an intermission

Juilliard's full-scholarship Historical Performance program was established and endowed in 2009 by the generous support of Bruce and Suzie Kovner.

The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not permitted in this auditorium.

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Alice Tully Hall Please make certain that all electronic devices are turned off during the performance. Handel’s School for Pietro Ottoboni . His psalm setting Dixit Dominus , for example, one of Handel’s Lovers best-known scores from his time in Rome, by Thomas May was part of a larger Vespers project proba - bly sponsored by Cardinal Colonna. Italy has served as a place of artistic (re)awakening for countless artists, at Along with these princes of the church, every stage of their lives. “All the dreams Handel found backing from the secular of my youth have come to life,” wrote aristocracy in the person of the Marquis Goethe of his first impressions of Rome, Francesco Maria Ruspoli (1672 –1731), 80 years after among the wealthiest men in Rome, and made the trip south of the Alps. Goethe, later a prince . Ruspoli hosted the com - already an internationally famous writer, poser at his Roman home, Bonelli Palace , spent two years traveling in Italy, where he as well as at his country estate northwest gained experiences that profoundly affected of the city at Vignanello . Handel seems to his work. Handel was still in the process of have spent at least two separate periods in launching his composing career and stayed his service, the first of which culminated in even longer (between 1706 and 1710—the Clori, Tirsi e Fileno in fall 1707. It’s interest - exact chronology of these years is riddled ing to note that his commissions from the with uncertainties and possibly included cardinals included both sacred and secular some return visits to Germany). works, while for the 1708 Easter celebra - tions at Ruspoli’s palace he also wrote La With sojourns in Florence, Rome, Naples, resurrezione , his second oratorio, which and Venice, young Handel assimilated not was lavishly staged. only practical knowledge invaluable for his craft but elements of Italian style—from Clori, Tirsi e Fileno belongs to a series of composers and performers alike—that cantatas that Handel produced for the enriched his style going forward. “Italian Accademia dell ’Arcadia , of which Ruspoli experience polished and refined the rough - was a prominent sponsoring member and ness of his native idiom without sapping its which held meetings and symposia at his strength,” Winton Dean and John Merrill palace. The Handel scholar Anthony Hicks Knapp wrote. “Indeed, the new lyrical free - describes some of these gatherings as occa - dom and flexibility notably increased it.” sions “in which a poet, a composer, and a singer could be challenged to write, set, and Dating from 1707, during Handel’s stay in perform a new cantata in the course of an Rome, Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, HWV 96, offers a evening.” Goethe himself recounted being scintillating snapshot of how the 22-year-old admitted into this “Arcadian Academy” dur - composer was being shaped during his ing his Italian journey, a century after its Italian adventure. The context for his founding: “It had often changed its places of hyper-prolific creativity in this period shows meeting and its artistic ideals, but it still the ambitious young man’s resourceful - maintained its outward form with great ness in attracting powerful patrons to respectability if not with an equal prestige.” sponsor him. Despite his own convictions as a Lutheran, Giorgio Federico Hendel (as The Arcadian society was still young when he restyled his name) received commis - Handel composed his weekly cantatas— sions from wealthy Roman Catholic cardi - many of the 60 or so extant cantatas for nals who were leading arts patrons: voice and continuo alone from this period Benedetto Pamphilli , Carlo Colonna , and are believed to have been produced for this purpose—and reflected, on the literary out to be fragile indeed. The simple dra - level, a desire to pare away the overgrown, matic scenario of Clori, Tirsi e Fileno over-ornamented complexity and artificial - depicts a zero-sum game of desire, a stale - ity of Italian poetry from the Baroque. The mate in which the shepherdess Clori has new ideal was modeled on the pastoral two lovers: the earnest Tirsi and the more poetry of classical antiquity, above all as resilient Fileno, his rival. We hear first from represented by the bucolic verse of the Tirsi—the cantata is sometimes titled after Greek poet Theocritus and the self-conscious the beginning of his first aria (“ Cor fedele ” Latin reboot of the genre in Virgil’s Eclogues . or “faithful heart”)—who despairs at the In effect, the Arcadian impulse is part of a prospect of his sincere love being mocked recurrent pattern of “reform” that veers in when he observes Clori with Fileno; yet he the direction of a new simplicity. is steadfast and cannot leave her. After she explains the situation to Tirsi as mere flirta - As in Shakespeare’s version of the pastoral tious play, reaffirming her love, Fileno is ideal in, say, the Forest of Arden scenes in left to wonder what to make of her behav - As You Like It , the pastoral posits an idyllic, ior with him. The two shepherds then find innocent natural setting set apart from the an emotional alliance. corruption of urban life. Love—more specif - ically, the force of Eros—is the primary For a long time after Handel’s death, Clori, motivator in this unspoiled Arcadia (the Tirsi e Fileno existed as a mere footnote, name comes from an actual place in main - with only parts of the cantata surviving in land Greece). Yet the paradox of evoking fragmentary form—including an ending ancient shepherdesses and shepherds in that underscores the shadowy side of this an imaginary setting as emblems of Arcadia: a duet in which Tirsi and Fileno “authenticity,” of a reaction against the resolve to give up on love altogether. artificial, suggests the multiple layers of However, in 1960 the German conductor allegory, coding, and dissembling that are and musicologist Rudolf Ewerhart unearthed involved in the pastoral—layers that are the complete manuscript in the archives made still more complex by the addition of known as the Santini Collection (housed in the musical dimension, through vocal char - Münster). It contained the composer’s revi - acterization and through instrumental sig - sion to the originally cynical resolution of the nifiers. The irony of ecclesiastics (a strong story. In place of a duet, Handel supplied the presence among the Arcadians) being trio “Vivere e non amar,” with its acknowl - associated with amorous shepherds did edgment that though love inevitably brings not go unnoticed by Goethe, who notes: pain, it is not possible to live without love. “But love is indispensable to poetry, so all [these avowed celibates] could do was to In her fascinating book Handel as Orpheus: turn to super-terrestrial, more or less pla - Voice and Desire in the Chamber Cantatas , tonic longings and, following in the foot - Ellen T. Harris argues that Handel’s circle of steps of their great forerunners, Dante and Italian patrons (also including his Medici Petrarch, indulge themselves in allegorical family sponsors in Florence) “fostered and delights, and it is this which gives their accepted” same-sex desire, and that this poems their peculiarly decorous character.” milieu is crucial to understanding how gen - der is coded and styled in such works as Yet if Arcadia awakens images of a harmo - Clori, Tirsi e Fileno . The cantata, in her view, nious Paradise, it is also a utopia resound - thus “acts out” a situation that echoes one ing with lovesickness—the harmony turns often-forgotten aspect of the Orpheus myth, in which Tirsi and Fileno “respond to this period besides the virtuosic Aci, their loss of Clori with male friendship.” Galatea e Polifemo , which was commis - Referring to Handel’s original ending, she sioned for a marriage celebration in Naples. argues that “the male rejection of hetero - sexual love with a potentially dangerous finds Clori, Tirsi e and histrionic woman, and its replacement Fileno “the most impressively operatic of with idealized same-sex love … lies at the the cantatas,” a precedent for the Naples heart” of the work. The change to the end - work. In Rome, Handel had no opportunity ing may have been made for a perfor - to write per se because of a papal mance in Naples. “Certainly the original, ban at the time on public performances of misogynistic ending would not have been . But he was able to channel his oper - appropriate for the wedding festivities with atic impulse into the format of the dramatic which Handel was engaged in Naples,” cantata and such oratorios as the staged Harris remarks. La resurrezione (as Handel would again do, much later, when the market for his brand Given how relatively recently the complete of opera dried up in London). “Here, in the score has been available, it’s not surprising Italian years, is the beginning of what will that we know little about the circum - become his great operas,” Agnew observes. stances of the initial presentation of Clori, Indeed, he would soon start recycling Tirsi e Fileno at the Academy—was any material from Clori, Tirsi e Fileno: “When staging involved?—or even about its origi - he settles in London, he arrives running.” nal singers. Paul Agnew, who leads this production, suggests that the two shep - Robert Mealy, director of Historical herd roles may well have been sung by Performance at Juilliard, points out that in castrati; he has opted for vocal casting addition to drawing in later years from the with a high and low soprano and a coun - tremendous outburst of creativity inspired tertenor. Handel also had the resources of by his time in Italy, Handel would continue excellent instrumentalists at his disposal to work in London with many of the and uses them in important obbligato roles singers and instrumentalists who had been in dialogue with the voices, as in Tirsi’s evo - involved in Italian compositions. The artis - cation of nature or Clori’s reference to the tic affirmation that the composer found nightingale in her first aria (when she with his colleagues in these formative appears with Fileno). The libretto, whose years extends beyond the musical sphere, author is unknown, is replete with standard- he adds. The atmosphere of the Arcadian issue pastoral imagery, yet the freshness of Academy was extraordinary in that it repre - Handel’s inspiration is evident throughout. sented “a moment when music is coming into the foreground as being on the same “While he doesn’t have complete freedom level as what the great poets and painters and is writing to order,” says Agnew, “this and architects of Rome are doing.” is quite a big commission, to set a long libretto that allows him to write duets and As a correlative to the search for musical a trio as well. It’s not just the pattern of authenticity that has motivated so much of recitative-aria, over and over again.” In the early music movement, Agnew says fact, the presence of three voices is that another kind of performative authen - notable. This is Handel’s only surviving ticity needs to be taken into account when cantata a tre con stromenti (“cantata for staging works such as Clori, Tirsi e Fileno : three [singers] with instruments”) from “Handel’s lyricism doesn’t often sit easily with our projecting complex modern emo - nature of the piece and what Handel sees tions onto it. The characters are delineated in it.” in such delicate ways, and they are all per - fectly defined features. Handel’s genius is Thomas May is the English-language editor quite enough to bring out the colors in for the Lucerne Festival and writes about these characters without us having to pro - the arts for a wide variety of publications. ject too much. There is no tragedy in this His books include Decoding Wagner and piece. If we try to put it into a context out - The John Adams Reader . side Arcadia, we change the inherent © 2018 Thomas May

Meet the Artists William Christie. In recent seasons he extended his repertoire to include Mozart’s Idomeneo under William Christie; Peter Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw

L under Jane Glover; Haydn’s L’anima del A V L

E filosofo with Kammerorchesterbasel in D

E Vienna and Eisenstadt; Handel’s Jephtha in P P I L I a new production by Katie Mitchell (con - H

P Paul Agnew ducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen); and Paul Agnew’s long association with the Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at Opéra world’s leading conductors in the field of de Nice. Agnew made his debut with the early music includes a discography of more Royal Opera, Covent Garden in a production than 100 recordings. His transition from an of Acis and Galatea to com memorate the acclaimed vocal career to conducting 250th anniversary of Handel’s death. Agnew’s began following a highly successful debut discography includes Lamentazione —on with Les Arts Florissants in Paris in 2007, which he conducts Les Arts Florissants when William Christie appointed him joint choir in works by Scarlatti and Caldara—for musical director; he has since gone on to Virgin, The Food of Love—Songs by Purcell lead the orchestra on tour to major venues for Ambroisie, Sally Beamish’s In Dreaming such as Lincoln Center and the Wiener for Virgin Classics, Rameau’s for Konzerthaus, throughout France, and to ABC, and Dowland songs for Metronome. Salzburg and China. In the U.S. he made He is actively engaged in the training and his opera conducting debut with Mozart’s preparation of the next generation of spe - Der Schauspieldirektor at the Opéra de cialist instrumentalists as the co-director of Rennes and, in 2014, replaced William the academy for young singers, Le Jardin Christie to conduct Rameau’s Platée in des Voix. Vienna, Paris, and London. Recent engage - ments include Rameau’s Indes Galantes at the Staatstheater Nürnbergthose and per - formances with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and Finnish Radio Chamber Orchestra in Helsinki. At the forefront of the revival of Siman Chung the French baroque repertoire, Agnew made his debut singing the title role in Rameau’s A native of Busan, South Korea, Siman in Paris conducted by Chung returned to the Metropolitan Opera this season for its production of Marnie . In bergère/Un Pâtre in Ravel's L’enfant et les spring 2019 he will create a leading role in sortilèges . She has sung numerous world the new opera Sadness and Beauty , which premieres, including Jonathan Dawe’s will have its world premiere in Hong Kong. Oroborium with New Juilliard Ensemble, Earlier this year he sang the title role in Theo Chandler's Songs for Brooches with the Berlioz edition of Gluck’s Orphée with the Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, Opera Columbus, in Toronto, and at the and Jake Landau’s Les danseuses de Banff Festival. He appeared with Korean Pigalle at New York Live Arts. National Opera in Vivaldi’s Orlando fintzo Allen and Judy Brick Freedman Scholarship , pazzo . Chung made his Carnegie Hall Risë Stevens Scholarship debut in 2015 singing Handel’s , and he made his New York recital debut in 2017, presented by Opera Index, as a win - ner of its major prize. He also received first prize of the Gerda Lissner Foundation, best countertenor award in Barcelona’s Viñas Competition, and a grant from the Mer Wohlgemuth Sullivan Foundation. Mer Wohlgemuth, from Winter Haven, Florida, is pursuing her master of music at Juilliard, where she studies with Marlena Malas. Wohlgemuth has performed in two different productions of Die Zauberflöte, Anneliese with the Berlin Opera Academy and the Klenetsky Southern Illinois Music Festival, as the Zweiter Knaben, as well as Nerone in the Soprano Anneliese Klenetsky is a second- Harrower Summer Workshop Young Artist year master’s student at Juilliard under the Program’s L’incoronazione di Poppea . In tutelage of Sanford Sylvan. She was most 2017 she won an Encouragement Award recently the soloist in the New York pre - at the Metropolitan Opera National Council miere of A Sibyl by James Primosch at Auditions (upper Midwest region) and sec - MoMA, under Joel Sachs. She collabo - ond place in the Nebraska State and Midwest rated with Juilliard415 and Vox Luminis on Regional NATS. She earned her bachelor’s Handel’s Laudate Pueri Dominum . Recent degree from Concordia Uni versity, Nebraska. opera repertoire includes the Governess in Philo Higley Scholarship, Leona Gordon Britten's The Turn of the Screw , Amaranta Lowin Scholarship, Marion L. Dears in Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata , and La Scholarship Violin 1 Viola Bassoon Orchestra Preparation Ruiqi Ren Rachell Ellen Wong Georgeanne Banker Robert Mealy Naomi Dumas Hannah Geisinger Chiara Fasani Stauffer Harpsichord Preparation Coaches Yi-Hsuan Ethan Lin Cello Francis Yun Corradina Caporello, Keats Dieffenbach Morgan Little language preparation Madeleine Bouissou Archlute Kenneth Merrill, music Violin 2 Adam Cockerham preparation Shelby Yamin Double Bass (solo) Chloe Kim Jonathan Luik Supertitles Rebecca Nelson Theorbo Celeste Montemarano Manami Mizumoto Oboe Joshua Stauffer Welvin Potter Andrew Blanke

About Juilliard415 Since its founding in 2009, Juilliard415, the A=415, has performed major oratorios and school’s principal period-instrument ensem - fully staged productions: Handel’s ble, has made significant contributions to and Radamisto ; Bach’s Matthew and John musical life in New York and beyond, bringing Passions; Cavalli’s La Calisto ; and perfor - major figures in the field of early music to lead mances in the U.S. and Holland of Bach’s performances of both rare and canonical conducted by . works of the 17th and 18th centuries. The The ensemble’s most recent international many distinguished guests who have led appearances were in Bolivia, in a tour Juilliard415 include Harry Bicket, William spon sored by the U.S. Department of State Christie, Monica Huggett, Ton Koopman, that marked the ensemble’s South America Nicholas McGegan, Rachel Podger, Jordi debut. The 2017–18 season was notable for Savall, and Masaaki Suzuki. Juilliard415 tours the Juilliard debuts of the rising conductor extensively in the U.S. and abroad, having Jonathan Cohen and the Belgian vocal performed on five con tinents with notable ensemble Vox Luminis, a side-by-side collab - appearances at the Boston Early Music oration with Philharmonia Baroque in San Festival, Leipzig Bach fest, and Utrecht Early Francisco, as well as return visits by Rachel Music Festival (where Juilliard was the first- Podger, William Christie, an all-Bach concert ever conservatory in residence), and on a ten- with Maestro Suzuki, and the rare opportu - concert tour of New Zealand. With its fre - nity to see a fully staged production of quent musical collaborator, the Yale Institute Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie . This sea - of Sacred Music, the ensemble has played son’s international schedule includes per - throughout Italy, Japan, Southeast Asia, the formances in Canada, London, Versailles, U.K., and India. Juilliard415, which takes its and throughout Scandinavia. In New York, name from the pitch commonly associated Juilliard415 welcomes Paul Agnew and with the performance of Baroque music, Alfredo Bernardini for their Juilliard debuts.

Administration Robert Mealy , Director Benjamin D. Sosland , Administrative Director Rosemary Metcalf , Assistant Administrative Director Annelise Wiering , Coordinator for Scheduling and Educational Support

Faculty Violin Cello Bass Oboe Elizabeth Blumenstock Phoebe Carrai Douglas Balliett Gonzalo Ruiz Robert Mealy Cynthia Roberts Viola da Gamba Flute Bassoon Sarah Cunningham Sandra Miller Dominic Teresi Plucked Instruments Continuo Skills Historical Theory Artists in Residence Daniel Swenberg Avi Stein Charles Weaver William Christie Charles Weaver Monica Huggett Core Studies Secondary Lessons Rachel Podger Harpsichord Thomas Forrest Kelly Nina Stern (recorder) Jordi Savall Richard Egarr Robert Mealy John Thiessen (trumpet) Beatrice Martin Todd Williams (horn) Peter Sykes

Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts One of America’s most prestigious pro - Opera has presented numerous premieres grams for educating singers, The Juilliard of new operas as well as works from the School’s Ellen and James S. Marcus standard repertoire. Juilliard graduates may Institute for Vocal Arts offers young artists be heard in opera houses and concert halls programs tailored to their talents and throughout the world; diverse alumni artists needs. From bachelor and master of music include well-known performers such as degrees to an advanced artist diploma in Leontyne Price, Renée Fleming, Risë opera studies, Juilliard provides frequent Stevens, Tatiana Troyanos, Simon Estes, and performance opportunities featuring singers Shirley Verrett. Recent alumni include Isabel in its own recital halls, on Lincoln Center’s Leonard, Susanna Phillips, Paul Appleby, Erin stages, and around New York City. Juilliard Morley, Sasha Cooke, and Julia Bullock.

Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts Brian Zeger , Artistic Director Monica Thakkar , Director, Performance Activities Kirstin Ek , Director, Curriculum and Schedules Emily Wells , Associate Director Andrew Gaines , Production Administrator Sarah Cohn , Projects Administrator, Performance Activities Po Chan , Projects Administrator, Curriculum Kiara Walker , Schedule and Program Coordinator Ari Bell , Vocal Arts Administrative Apprentice

Voice Faculty Steven Blier David Paul, Dramatic Stephen Wadsworth, Sanford Sylvan, Chair Corradina Caporello Advisor for Master of James S. Marcus Edith Bers Robert Cowart Music and Graduate Faculty Fellow, William Burden Alexandra Day Diploma Director of Artist Cynthia Hoffmann Cori Ellison J.J. Penna Diploma in Opera Marlena K. Malas John Giampietro Diane Richardson, Studies Robert White Bénédicte Jourdois Principal Coach and Gary Thor Wedow Robert C. White Jr. Natalia Katyukova Music Advisor for Reed Woodhouse, Edith Wiens Kathryn LaBouff Artist Diploma in Music Advisor for Gina Levinson Opera Studies Master of Music and Vocal Arts Faculty Kenneth Merrill Lauren Schiff Graduate Diploma Stefano Baldasseroni David Moody, Chorus Eve Shapiro, Dramatic Brian Zeger, Artistic Marianne Barrett Master Advisor for Artist Director Edward Berkeley Glenn Morton Diploma in Opera Mary Birnbaum, Nils Neubert Studies Associate Director of Adam Nielsen Jeanne Slater Artist Diploma in Donald Palumbo Avi Stein Opera Studies Cameron Stowe

2018 –19 Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts Fellows Nikolay Verevkin, piano Jeffrey Lamont Page, opera directing