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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival

in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018

Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer

Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 PRESS KIT Email: [email protected]

for the opening of the 2018 Handel Festival programme,

a festival in authentic venues in the city of ’s birth, Halle an der Saale

May 25, 2018, 2pm, Chamber Music Hall of Grosse Nikolaistrasse 5, D-06108 Halle (Saale)

With: Dr. Bernd Wiegand, Mayor of the City of Halle / President of the Handel House Foundation Board of Trustees

Samir Savant, Festival Director of the Handel Festival

Leo Duarte, Musical Director of “Ormisda”

Clemens Birnbaum, Director of the Handel House Foundation / Executive Director of the Handel Festival Halle

Musical accompaniment: Musicians from Settecento conducted by Leo Duarte Ormisda, HWV A3:

1. Presto from the Ouverture 2. Infelice abbandonata - A-section only 3. È quella la bella - A-section only 4. Sentirsi dire - A-section only

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

Contents

in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018

2018 Handel Festival “Foreign Worlds” Pages 3 – 4

New: Visitor information Page 5 Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug at the Handel Festival Pages 6 - 8 Press and PR Officer

Other staged performances Pages 9 - 10 Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 and sacred music Pages 10 - 11 Email: [email protected] World premieres and new productions Pages 11 - 12 Gala concerts with international stars Pages 12 – 13 New: Broadcasts and concert recordings at the Handel Festival Page 14 The Handel Festival breaks new ground Pages 14 - 16 A new partnership: Handel Festival Halle and the are working together Page 16 International Academic Conference Page 16 Admission-free and family events Pages 17 - 18 “Foreign Worlds” – reflections on the festival theme Pages 18 – 19 New: Official start of advance ticket sales for Handel in Autumn Page 19 2018 winner Page 20 New: Jesse Siebenberg (Supertramp) at Bridges to Classics Page 21 The Handel House Foundation museums during the festival Page 22 Facts and figures Pages 23 – 24 Patrons and sponsors Page 25

Inserts: Press release by Lotto-Toto GmbH Sachsen-Anhalt Press release by HWG Hallesche Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH Press release by Stadtwerke Halle GmbH

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

2018 Handel Festival: “Foreign Worlds”

in Halle (Saale) since 1922 From May 25-June 10, 2018, Halle an der Saale will once again be the scene of a May 25 – June 10, 2018 glittering Handel Festival. Under the title “Foreign Worlds”, during the 17 days of the festival more than 100 events making up the main and secondary programmes will be taking place in and around the city of the ’s birth in celebration of its Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug great son while also providing some extraordinary musical experiences in authentic Press and PR Officer venues. Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 The new production of , Regina d’Egitto, HWV 38, at Halle Opera on the Email: [email protected] first day of the festival will close the final gap in the repertoire after nearly 100 years: all 42 of the composer’s operas will then have been performed in his home city since the revival of Handel’s operas began, with , in the year 1922. This first per- formance of Berenice, Regina d’Egitto is based on the Halle Handel Edition – just like a further eight works. The Handel Festival will be presenting eight operas, three oth- er staged performances, three oratorios, six gala concerts and a number of events that cross all genres. The festival brings together stars of the international music scene. Among other artists, visitors will have the chance to hear, in live per- formances, several-time Grammy award winner Joyce DiDonato, and Sophie Karthäuser, mezzo-sopranos Magdalena Kožená and Ann Hal- lenberg, alto Nathalie Stutzmann and Max Emanuel Cencic and . Further musical enjoyment will be provided by internationally renowned ensembles such as Il Pomo d’Oro, under the musical direction of Maxim Emel- yanychev, and the , and La Cetra Barockorchester con- ducted by . As in past years, bridges will also be built to other music genres, including jazz, electro and rock music. And a number of concerts will be entering into a thrilling musical dialogue with other cultures, such as Turkish and Persian music. The motto bannering the 2018 Handel Festival, “Foreign Worlds”, will be omnipres- ent, with the International Academic Conference also turning its attention to this theme. During the course of his life, Handel got to know foreign languages, coun- tries, cultures and religions. In his music he overcame barriers time and again, trans- porting listeners to faraway places and sometimes even to fairytale worlds. Has Handel’s world now become alien to us? Or is there also much that is familiar to us? We invite you to come and investigate these exciting questions. The programme also includes an anniversary: in 1968, the Goethe Theatre in Bad Lauchstädt was a venue of the Handel Festival for the first time. During these 50 years, this historic theatre has become an established part of the festival. This year, the famous Lautten Compagney Berlin under the musical direction of will be staging Handel’s serenata , HWV 73, and the Baroque ensemble Musica Florea the opera , HWV 13. This will be the first staged performance of Muzio Scevola in its entirety since the eighteenth century. This German premiere will take place at the Carl Maria von We- ber Theatre in Bernburg. Bach Consort Wien with Rubén Dubrovsky and selected soloists will be performing Handel’s , HWV A11.

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

But the Handel Festival will also be breaking completely new ground in the year ahead. Besides the tried, tested and ever more popular Baroque Lounges, we will for the first time be a holding poetry slam, with the theme of “Foreign Worlds”. Baroque in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 music and poetry slams – what a strange combination. Are they compatible at all? We’re looking forward to finding out, taking our example from Handel.

We will also be developing our partnership with the London Handel Festival. The Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Handel Singing Competition has already launched many an international singing Press and PR Officer career. For this first time, two prize winners of the 2017 competition will be present- Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 ing a lunchtime concert in Handel House, Halle. Admission is free – as it is for nu- Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: merous other events at this year’s Handel Festival. For example, visitors can look [email protected] forward to the 16th Organ Night, a night-time concert, the International Academic Conference, lectures on selected events, Handel for Brass on Domplatz and the Fami- ly Festival in the courtyard of Handel House, all admission-free. Clemens Birnbaum, director of the Handel House Foundation and the Festival’s ex- ecutive director, is ecstatic: “That is a unique record, unrivalled anywhere in the world: eight different staged productions in just 17 days. Visitors can hear works that have not been performed in this way since the eighteenth century, or which are new productions or even world premieres. Moreover, we will be build- ing bridges to other music genres and other cultures. I am delighted that we are once again able to celebrate a great Baroque music festival that is second to none. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the City of Halle, the State of Saxony- Anhalt and the federal government, as well as our numerous partners, patrons and sponsors, of whom I will cite just Lotto Sachsen-Anhalt, Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstif- tung and Saalesparkasse. Although “foreignness” is the theme of this year’s festival, all this shows that more than 250 years after Handel’s death the music of the Halle- born composer, far more than alienating us, still touches us as deeply as ever.“

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

New: Visitor information

The 2018 Handel Festival Visitors’ Office in Handel House is open daily from May in Halle (Saale) since 1922 23 to June 10, from 10am to 6pm. May 25 – June 10, 2018

Visitors to the Handel Festival still have a good chance of getting tickets for numer- ous events from the Visitors’ Office of Handel House in Halle (Grosse Nikolaistras- Media contact: se. 5, Grosser Innenhof), or at the box office. Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer

If you want to find out more about this year's Handel Festival, we recommend read- Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 ing the festival magazine, available for the price of €3. This provides full festival Email: [email protected] information, with interesting features on the performers, background information on performances and much more besides.

Information on ticket sales

Tip 1: Family tickets for the closing concert: one child under 14 accompanied by one adult paying the full ticket price pays only ten euros.

Tip 2: Tickets for Bridges to Classics and the closing concert entitle holders to free transport on MDV vehicles in tariff zone 210 from two hours before the start of the event and for two hours after the end.

Tip 3: Concessionary student tickets are available for some events. For „Dieter Ilg: Mein Händel“ on May 26 in the St. George’s Church, for „Ungeschrieben: Händel und die Improvisation on May 27 in the Handel House, for „Pleasure Gardens“ on June 7 in the St. George’s Church, for the „Baroque Lounge: Mr. Handel’s Pocket Operas“ on June 8 in the Saltworks Museum students pay only 15 euros instead of 20.

Tickets for the 2018 Handel Festival are available:

- In advance ticket booking agencies: CTS Eventim advance ticket sales offices all over ; in Saxony-Anhalt also from TiM Ticket in Mitteldeutsche Zeitung service centres and Galeria Kaufhof Passage in Halle - Via our hotline: +49 (0)345 / 565 27 06 (Monday to Friday: 7am-7pm, Satur- day: 7am-2pm) - From the Visitors’ Office in the courtyard of Handel House, Grosse Nikolais- trasse 5 - Opening times: May 23-June 10, every day from 10 – 18pm - By phoning: 0345 / 500 90 444 - At box offices (open one hour before the start of performances at the re- spective venues)

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

Operas at the Handel Festival

Rinaldo HWV 7b (concert performance, German premiere of in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 the 1731 version, performance based on the Halle Handel Edition)

Muzio Scevola HWV 13 (staged, first stage performance since the Media contact: eighteenth century) Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer in Egitto HWV 17 (staged, premiere) Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 HWV 32 (concert performance, new production Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: based on the Halle Handel Edition) [email protected] Berenice, Regina d‘ Egitto HWV 38 (staged, premiere, new production based on the Halle Handel Edition Parnasso in festa HWV 73 (staged, premiere, new production based on the Halle Handel Edition Ormisda HWV A3 (concert performance, German premiere) Oreste HWV A11 (staged, German premiere of this production by Kammeroper, )

In 2018, the Handel Festival will be presenting eight operas, five of which will be staged versions and three concert performances. Nearly 100 years after the first modern performance of Berenice, Regina d’Egitto, HWV 38, all 42 of Handel’s oper- as will have been performed here. With performances of Ormisda, HWV A3, and Oreste, HWV A11, the series of performances begun in 2012 at the Handel Festival of hitherto largely neglected pasticcio and fragments by Georg Frideric Handel will be continued. All these opera performances have some special claim: some are the first performances in Germany based on the Halle Handel Edition, while others are the first staged productions anywhere in the world since the eighteenth century. The 2018 Handel Festival will open with the new production of the opera Berenice, Regina d’Egitto, HWV 38, at Halle Opera, based on the Halle Handel Edition. Mis- takes, misunderstandings, revenge, power-play and love are all reflected in Handel’s powerful music. The Handel Festival Halle will be conducted by Jörg Halu- bek, who has already made a name for himself as a conductor of Baroque operas. The stage director of this opera, which focuses on the Egyptian queen, Berenice III, is Jochen Biganzoli. He delighted audiences at Halle Opera during the 2016-17 season with his extraordinary and moving production of Puccini’s Tosca. With the perfor- mance of the rarely produced opera Berenice, Regina d’Egitto, a special milestone has been attained: all 42 of Handel’s operas will have been performed in Halle. This new production based on the Halle Handel Edition will be premiered in the his- toric Goethe Theatre Bad Lauchstädt, which has been a regular venue of the Handel Festival for 50 years. The serenata Parnasso in festa, HWV 73, will be staged by Lautten Compagney Berlin under the musical direction of Handel Prize winner Wolf- gang Katschner and a soloist ensemble of choice on May 27, 28, and 29, 2018. The internationally successful specialist of and gesture Sigrid T’Hooft will be bringing to life the nuptials of and Peleus on Mount Parnassus in a histori- cally informed production of Parnasso in festa. The Goethe Theatre will be decked out in full Baroque splendour for this performance, which is sponsored jointly by

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung and Saalesparkasse and promises to be a feast for the eyes and ears. in Halle (Saale) since 1922 “The Handel Festival marks the highpoint of the region’s cultural year and each May 25 – June 10, 2018 time round enthuses a keenly interested audience. As longstanding partners, we are proud of its success even beyond the immediate region. Above all we are delighted once again at this performance in the historic Goethe Theatre in Bad Lauchstädt, Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug which makes the festival an experience to be enjoyed not only in the city of Halle, Press and PR Officer but also in the wider Saale region,” says Dr. Jürgen Fox, Chairman of the Saalespar- Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 kasse Executive Board and member of the Board of Trustees of the Handel House Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: Foundation. [email protected]

One rarely performed work will be staged in the Carl Maria von Weber Theatre in Bernburg: Oreste, HWV A11. In a production based on the Halle Handel Edition and performed for the first time in Germany, the renowned Bach Consort Wien under musical director Rubén Dubrovsky presents this opera pasticcio which deals with the well-known theme of . The Junges Ensemble of Theater an der Wien and Bach Consort Wien deliver a musically gripping performance in a production of great scenographic interest. The performances on June 2 and 3, 2018, in Bernburg are sponsored by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Another rarely heard work, Ormisda, HWV A3 , will be presented by the English early music ensemble, Opera Settecento. Conducted by Leo Duarte these young musicians, who made their much-acclaimed debut at the Handel Festival in 2017, captivate audiences with their performances on period instruments. The vocal sup- port will be provided by a splendid young ensemble of soloists, including prize win- ners of the London Handel Singing Competition. The London Handel Singing Competition has long been a springboard for international singing careers. This new production, which is being performed for the first time in Germany and sung in the original Italian, is a joint project with the London Handel Festival. For his opera pas- ticcio that you can hear on May 26, 2018, in the Francke Foundations, Handel com- piled and rearranged music by L. Vinci, J. A. Hasse, G. M. Orlandini. Research has found that this is the first time this work has ever been performed in Germany. The second, largely unknown version of the opera , HWV 7b, of 1731 can be heard in a concert performance on June 3, 2018, in George Frideric Handel Hall with international prize-winning soloists such as Jason Bridges , Xavier Sabata and Christopher Lowrey. Kammerorchester Basel, one of the world’s top Baroque , will accompany the singers, conducted by . Catalan Xavier Sabata, who is a very familiar guest in Halle, will play the role of Rinaldo. Another member of this excellent cast of singers who certainly deserves a mention is the outstanding French , Sandrine Piau. The popular story of the knight Rinaldo marked Handel’s highly acclaimed debut in London. Many years and several revisions later, Handel staged the opera once again. With such excellent musicians, this new production of the 1731 version, based on the Halle Handel Edition, is set to become a reference. Muzio Scevola, HWV 13, can be heard on June 8, 9 and 10, 2018, in a staged production featuring the Prague Baroque ensemble Musica Florea and the ballet dancers of the Hartig Ensemble in the Goethe Theatre, Bad Lauchstädt. This is the first staged performance of the work since the eighteenth century. Three 7

PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle worked on this opera pasticcio. It is suspected today that , the less well-known Filippo Amadei and George Frideric Handel worked simultane- ously on it for reasons of time. But it is also thought that the diplomat Friedrich von in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 Fabrice had the idea of a competition and that a draw decided who would compose which act. Handel drew the lot for Act 3 and at the premiere reaped the greatest applause from the audience. Act 1 was written by Amadei and Act 2 by Bononcini. Media contact: The musicians of Musica Florea and the dancers of the Hartig Ensemble already de- Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer lighted audiences at last year’s festival with their performance of in the Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Carl Maria von Weber Theatre in Bernburg. Director Laurent Charoy, who has al- Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 ready worked with director Benjamin Lazar on several occasions and also studied the Email: [email protected] Baroque gesture of language under him, is known for his historically inspired stage performances. This new production of Muzio Scevola is sponsored by Mitteldeutsche Barockmusik e. V. Tickets for the performances in the Goethe Theatre entitle you to free admission to the permanent exhibitions “Neues Schillerhaus” (New Schiller House) and “Badegeschichte im Douche Pavillon” (History of Spa in the Douche Pavil- ion) on the day of the concert. One rarely performed work by Handel can be heard on June 9, 2018, in a concert performance in Ulrichskirche Concert Hall: Arianna in Creta, HWV 32, will be played by the highly acclaimed ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro and an impressive line-up of soloists under the musical direction of the young, up-and-coming conductor and , Maxim Emelyanychev. For this first performance based on the Halle Handel Edition, the soloists taking the stage will be Karina Gauvin, Ann Hallenberg, Kristina Hammerström and Andreas Wolf. The premiere in 1734 marked the London debut of the young . A whole 25 years younger than , he charmed everyone with his voice, putting the by then ageing Senesino in the shade. Anhaltisches Theater Dessau is to be a venue of the Handel Festival for the first time. In cooperation with the Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig and the Handel Festival, they will be staging a masterpiece: Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17. Nicola Fransesco Haym wrote the which tells of the love story between Caesar and in a combination of drama, power, politics and also a touch of humour. The performance on June 8, 2018, is staged by students of Leipzig’s Music University. Markus L. Frank will conduct the Anhaltische Philharmonie performing on modern instruments.

Other staged performances

Jephtha HWV 70 (, staged, based on the Halle Handel Edition) The Blissful Twins (staged concert performance with music from Han- del’s Music for and others) “Die Nachtigall des Zaren”’ (staged reading with from the Baroque period (The Tsar’s Nightingale) (in German))

Besides the five staged opera performances, another three stage productions also feature on the programme of the 2018 Handel Festival. For example, you can enjoy a

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle repeat of last year’s Halle Opera production of Handel’s oratorio , HWV 70. This much-remarked and highly acclaimed production by director Tatjana Gür- baca, a gripping drama of vows and paternal love, brought the oratorio based on in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 the Halle Handel Edition to the stage of Halle Opera in 2017. With its huge choruses and affect-laden arias, Handel achieved a pinnacle of musical excellence in his career in 1752. One June 1 and 10, 2018, the Handel Festival Orchestra conducted by Media contact: Christoph Spering will be accompanying this stage performance at Halle Opera. Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer

In a staged concert being premiered at the Handel Festival, listeners will further be Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 able to enjoy a poetic gesamtkunstwerk. The Blissful Twins focuses on the Arcadi- Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: an poetry of John Milton and its setting to music by George Frideric Handel, turning [email protected]

Handel's Music for Comus, HWV 44, extracts from the first two parts of L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato and movements from the Grosso Op. 6 into a poetic pasticcio. Baroque ensemble Scenitas and sopranos Anne Schneider and Julia Kirchner, wearing historical costumes, will be joining forces in song and word on June 3, 2018, in the auditorium of Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. Die Nachtigall des Zaren, or “The Tsar’s Nightingale”, a Handel Opera produc- tion first performed at the Handel mini-festival, Handel in Autumn, in 2017, tells the fascinating life story of the star castrato, Filippo Balatri (1682–1756), based on his movingly personal and bitingly sardonic autobiography –a "road movie of the Ba- roque” about everyday life at court, the European art scene and the hardships of travel in the seventeenth century between Pisa and St. Petersburg, London and Düs- seldorf, Paris, Munich and Vienna, and the Kalmuk steppe.

Oratorios and sacred music

Messiah HWV 56 HWV 57 (A new production of the soloist version of 1743 based on the Halle Handel Edition) Jephtha HWV 70 (cf “Other staged performances”) Jazziah – Handel’s reloaded (world premiere) Chandos HWV 281 (new production)

Probably Handel’s best-known oratorio, Messiah, HWV 56, is traditionally per- formed in the church where he was baptised, Marktkirche in Halle. This year howev- er, Messiah will be performed in another authentic venue: Halle Cathedral, where Han- del also worked as an organist from 1702-3. The Marktkirche is undergoing renova- tion work in 2018. The strength and beauty of this major choral work is undiminished even today. To- gether with a host of internationally renowned soloists, the multiple award-winning musicians of La Cetra Barockorchester and Vokalensemble Basel will be performing under the baton of Andrea Marcon. This benchmark performance on June 1 in Halle Cathedral is presented by LOTTO Sachsen-Anhalt. “We are proud to see how over the past twenty years the development of the Han- del Festival has contributed to the global reputation of Saxony-Anhalt as an im-

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle portant, richly historical centre of music,” says LOTTO’s managing director Ma- ren Sieb. “LOTTO has been a willing and dependable partner of the Handel Festival for many years.” in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 A world premiere featuring a new arrangement of the music of Handel’s Messiah combined with various jazz styles awaits the audience in the Steintor Theatre on 2 June, 2018. Extracts from Handel’s composition will be played in their original form Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug and others by jazz musicians, while yet others have been arranged by the Italian Press and PR Officer guitarist Domenico Caliri in such a way as to allow the musicians from two effectively Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 “foreign” worlds to able to play together. Nevertheless, both conserve their own Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: musical language. Besides proven jazz musicians such as Caroline Henderson (vocals), [email protected]

Gianluigi Trovesi () and Domenico Caliri (electric guitar), also playing under the musical direction of the outstanding Baroque musician Attilio Cremonesi will be Vokalensemble Ardent and Camerata Bern. They are co-producing this new Jazziah jointly with the Handel Festival. About the genesis of Jazziah, Attilio Cremonesi writes: “The catchy melodies in Handel’s Messiah, which express a special sensuality like the best blues, and the rhythmic drive of the rapid arias make for an ideal com- bination of jazz and Baroque music.” The concert is sponsored by Hallesche Woh- nungsgesellschaft mbH. The oratorio Samson, HWV 57, was written in what was probably Handel’s most creative period, beginning with and up to Samson. It was premi- ered on 18 February, 1743, in in London. On 27 May, 2018, the solo- ist version of 1743 based on the Halle Handel Edition will be performed for the first time in Ulrichskirche Concert Hall. The dramatic structure, the wealth of musical im- agery and the dramatic strength of this oratorio make it a masterpiece. The English organist, harpsichordist and music historian John Butt, who is respected the world over for his historically authentic interpretations of Handel’s works, will be conduct- ing the top Scottish ensemble, the Dunedin Consort. In 1717, Handel accepted an invitation from James Brydges, Earl of Carnavon and later Duke of Chandos, and spent two years at the latter’s country seat of near London, where a small ten-instrument orchestra and eight musicians were at his disposal. At Cannons, among other works Handel wrote eleven psalm settings, which became known as the Chandos . The Chandos Te Deum, HWV 281, is very rarely performed. The work has now been re-edited for the Halle Handel Edition. It is this version that will be premiered on May 29, 2018, in Halle Cathedral by musicians from the London Handel Orchestra, who have gained a reputation as proven Handel specialists. The works that Handel composed at Chandos are unique and charm listeners with their elegant, often restrained sound.

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

World premieres and new productions a) World premieres and new productions of previously performed works in Halle (Saale) since 1922 Jazziah – Handel’s Messiah reloaded (world premiere) May 25 – June 10, 2018

Hercules (world premiere of a pasticcio of settings by G. Fr. Handel and Joh. Seb. Bach Media contact: by Clemens Flämig) Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer My Handel (world premiere of new Handel arrange- Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 ments by Dieter Ilg) Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Muzio Scevola HWV 13 (first staged performance since the eight- Email: [email protected] eenth century) Samson HWV 57 (first modern-day performance of the soloist version of 1743) b) German premiere Ormisda HWV A3 (German premiere) Rinaldo HWV 7b (German premiere of the 1731 version) Tu fedel? Tu costante? HWV 171a (German premiere of the version of this Handel discovered in 2016) c) New productions based on the Halle Handel Edition Rinaldo HWV 7b Arianna in Creta HWV 32 Berenice, Regina d‘ Egitto HWV 38 Samson HWV 57 Chandos Te Deum HWV 281 Parnasso in festa HWV 73 Tu fedel? Tu costante? HWV 171a

One particular feature of the Handel Festival Halle is the close link between academic research and music practice. New productions based on the Halle Handel Edition are held on a regular basis during the festival. This is a critical edition project involving academics from all over the world and funded by the Union of the German Acade- mies of Sciences and Humanities. It enables new findings from research to find their way into performance practice. Moreover, special versions of Handel’s works that have never or only rarely been heard in modern times have repeatedly been per- formed in Halle. Frequently, they are the first performances of the works in the world since the eighteenth century. This is true this year of the staged opera production Muzio Scevola (cf “Operas at the Handel Festival”) and the soloist version of Samson (cf “Oratorios and sacred music”). In past years, the Handel Festival has revived Han- del’s hitherto largely ignored and little-known . They reveal Handel in quite a different light: as an arranger of music by his contemporaries. For the first time in Germany, audiences will have a chance to hear the pasticcio Ormisda (cf “Operas at the Handel Festival). In addition to this, the Handel Festival also commissions new projects and arrangements that have their world premiere in Halle. On June 10, 2018, the concert entitled “Light and shadow in a world” will focus on the cantata Tu fedel? Tu costante?, HWV 171a, that was discovered only in 2016. Based on the Halle Handel Edition, it will be performed for the first

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle time in Germany by Concerto Melante, an ensemble that includes members of the Berlin Philharmonic. The ensemble is led by violinist Raimar Orlovsky and the solo will be sung by the young soprano Marie Luise Werneburg. Further pastoral works in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 are also included in the concert programme.

The concert entitled “My Handel” includes works commissioned by the two Handel Festivals of Göttingen and Halle from the double bassist Dieter Ilg. The musicians Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug build on Handel’s works from the perspective of modern, 21st-century jazz in best Press and PR Officer jazz manner, with harmonic changes and rhythmic diversity. Ilg has already provided Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 ample proof with Beethoven, Verdi and Wagner that jazz adaptations can be an Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: enriching experience over and above the usual crossovers. Dieter Ilg’s My Handel will [email protected] be premiered on May 26, 2018, in St. George’s Church in Halle. Bach’s “Hercules cantata”, Lasst uns sorgen, lasst uns wachen, BWV 213, and Han- del’s The Choice of Hercules, HWV 69, are part of the often performed standard repertoire. Both works have already been played on numerous occasions in immedi- ate succession in concerts. However, never before in Halle have the two Hercules settings been woven together into a new pasticcio. This is what Clemens Flämig has done, and his work will enjoy its world premiere at the Handel Festival on June 3, 2018, at 11am at the Francke Foundations. With Hercules, the young demi-god, who on his journey is forced to choose between desire and virtue, this concert takes up a central motif of cultural history. In the eighteenth century in particular, many composers took an interest in the subject and transferred the ancient material to a setting with the Christian worldview. How do Bach and Handel resolve the question of the importance of the and virtue in their settings? With Stadtsingechor zu Halle, one of Central Germany’s oldest boy , the soloists and the Handel Festi- val Halle, this new melding of the two cannot fail to please. We are grateful to Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung and Saale-sparkasse for their joint sponsorship of this concert.

Gala concerts with international stars

This year’s Handel Festival will present six exclusive gala concerts featuring top Ba- roque music artists. The gala concerts lend special glamour to the Handel Festival, a homage to the star singers of Handel’s time and the internationally renowned sing- ers of our own. The winner of Grammy awards, Joyce DiDonato, ranks among the world’s top clas- sical music artists. On May 26, 2018, she will be appearing in her staged concert entitled “In War and Peace – Harmony through Music” in the George Frideric Handel Hall and setting new musical accents. Wearing gowns by British punk designer Vivienne Westwood, the US mezzo-soprano will present an elaborate light show featuring dancers and music by composers including H. Purcell, N. Jommelli, C. Gesualdo, A. Pärt and G. F. Handel. Joyce DiDonato will be accompanied by the internationally respected Il Pomo d’oro under the musical direction of Maxim Emelyanychev. Sophie Karthäuser has made a name for herself throughout in the past few years and enjoys an excellent reputation with audiences and critics. In her concert on 12

PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

May 27, 2018, in the auditorium of Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, the soprano will be singing well-known arias from operas by G. F. Handel with great power of expression and musical diversity, accompanied by Capella Augustina. The in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 con-ductor, harpsichordist and early music specialist Andreas Spering, who conduct- ed the production of at Halle Opera at the 2014 Handel Festival , has con- ducted this resident orchestra of the Brühl Castle Concerts since 1996. Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Yet another world star will be appearing in Ulrichskirche Concert Hall on May 31, Press and PR Officer

2018: Magdalena Kožená. This Czech mezzo-soprano and 2013-14 Handel Prize Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 winner has been a familiar guest at concert and opera houses all over the world for Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: many years. She is celebrated everywhere she goes for her emotive stage presence [email protected] and power of expression. Together with La Cetra Barockorchester Basel led by musi- cal director Andrea Marcon, she will be singing a concert of the “best of” Handel’s works. The concert is sponsored by GP Günter Papenburg AG. The French alto and conductor Nathalie Stutzmann will be appearing at Ulrichskir- che Concert Hall on June 2, 2018, with her ensemble, Orfeo 55. The special thing about this concert is that she will be both conducting and singing. Her flamboyant, deep alto voice with its fine-grained timbre never fails to give listeners goosepimples. In the gala concert “Duello Amoroso”, which is sponsored by TOTAL Raffinerie Mit- teldeutschland GmbH, you can hear some moving Handel arias and duets. The beau- tiful voice of the Swedish soprano, Camilla Tilling, will complement the performance. Nathalie Stutzmann was already a guest at the Handel Festival back in 2015, when she took the stage and delighted the audience alongside the Handel Prize winner . Since Julia Lezhneva appeared at the Salzburger Musikwoche in 2010 conducted by , she has become an established and frequent guest at international concert venues. Her award-winning albums have earned her the German Record Critics’ Award and a Diaposon d’Or. Her powerful and clear soprano voice thrills audiences with its imitable, effortless . She will be accompanied on June 6, 2018 by the period ensemble La Voce Strumentale from , con-ducted by Dmitry Sinkovsky, who is also a successful violinist and countertenor. This gala con- cert is sponsored by Kathi Rainer Thiele GmbH. No Handel Festival Halle would be complete without a gala concert featuring a countertenor. On June 8, 2018, Max Emanuel Cencic will be presenting a pro- gramme devoted to the two rivals of London, Handel and Porpora, in Ulrich- skirche Concert Hall. Cencic’s career began when he was a young child, with the Vienna Boys . Since then, he has made countless appearances with renowned ensembles and played in numerous stage productions on Europe’s most famous stages, including in Handel’s at the 2015 Handel Festival. Today, Cencic is one of the most famous countertenors of our time. He will be accompanied by the Greek orchestra Armonia Atenea, conducted by .

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NEW: Broadcasts and concert recordings at the Handel Festival

in Halle (Saale) since 1922 MDR Kultur May 25 – June 10, 2018

„MDR Kultur in der Oper“ Berenice, Regina d’Egitto: Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Broadcast May 26, 2018, 8pm Press and PR Officer

Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Thursday, May 31, 2018, 7.30pm, Ulrichskirche Concert Hall Email: Gala concert with Magdalena Kožená: [email protected] Broadcast June 5, 2018, 8pm

Deutschlandradio Kultur

Saturday, May 26, 2018, 3pm, Freylinghausensaal of the Franckeschen Stiftungen „Ormisda“ Broadcast May 27, 2018, 8pm

The Handel Festival breaks new ground

There is always something new to discover at the Handel Festival. The programme is open to all music genres and cultures, including those outside Europe. But this year, visitors will be treated to a very special innovation: a poetry slam. At first glance, the two worlds seem completely foreign to one another. But during his life, Handel was always in search of new knowledge and new worlds, and also travelled to foreign lands. In the same way, our modern-day poets travel from place to place to present their texts. These impressions of foreign – as well as familiar – worlds will be coming together for the first time in Handel House on May 31, 2018. The poetry slam “Fremde Welten” is a cooperative project with the HALternativ association. The Norwegian musician Tora Augestad together with the Lautten Compagney Ber- lin will be contrasting Handel’s English Songs, HWV 228, with “English Songs” of today in a programme entitled “As on a Sunshine Summer’s Day”. Handel com- posed 24 songs over a period of more than 30 years which document life in . The songs were performed in different plays, but were probably also sung in Lon- don’s public gardens, known as “pleasure gardens”. Tora Augestad and these crea- tive Baroque musicians will be appearing in St. George’s Church on May 30. The partnership struck up with the Women in Jazz festival over the past two years will be continued in 2018. The Austrian singer Ulrike Tropper, who will have performed just a few weeks previously at the 2018 Women in Jazz festival, will be appearing at the Handel Festival with the Quadriga Consort. This concert excursion will take us to the English pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century. Here were nooks to eat in, music pavilions and shady walks. G. F. Handel also provided “honest" with his music. In its concert entitled “Pleasure Gardens” in St. George’s Church on June 7, 2018, the Quadriga Consort will venture into this exciting place, constantly shift- ing between complex art music and catchy traditional tunes, and between the Re- naissance and Baroque right through to folk and pop. As if between the trees in

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Vauxhall Gardens, the music wanders at leisure between these different styles. The special thing about this concert is that we will be hearing beautifully crafted, erstwhile popular songs of love and death, and joy and sorrow, which have survived in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 in a London collection from the mid-eighteenth century and which today is in the possession of the Handel House Foundation. A thrilling journey of discovery is in store. Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug The Siedehalle (evaporating hall) of the Halle Salt-Panners and Saltworks Museum Press and PR Officer will be a new festival venue from this year. This is where the Baroque Lounge con- Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 cert entitled “Mr. Handel’s Pocket Operas” featuring DJ Brezel Göring and the Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: Elbipolis Barockorchester from will take place on June 8, 2018. Elbipolis [email protected]

Barockorchester is known for its rousing and varied interpretations. The musicians will play works by G. F. Handel brilliantly and with plenty of surprises, to which DJ Brezel Göring will respond electronically, opening up a whole new realm of ex- change and spon-taneous musical experience. A large, curious and keenly interested audience has grown up around the intercul- tural and interreligious projects initiated by the Handel Festival every year. This year, they can look forward to an encounter between the music of Handel and Persian music. The beauty of nature as an eternal spring has inspired artists of all generations – poets or musicians alike – in all countries. In his Nine German Arias, Handel set to music the extremely popular, lyrical depictions of nature by B.H. Brockes. Descrip- tions and metaphors of nature are also a popular stylistic means for Persian poets. This is where lutenist Sofie Vanden Eynde steps in with her concert entitled “Flam- ing Rose, Earth’s Adornment” on June 5, 2018, in the Leopoldina’s banqueting hall, and builds an artistic bridge between cultures. The yearning for love between West and East, joie de vivre and timeless poetic images are evoked in works by com- posers such as G. F. Handel, Saadi, J-Ph. Rameau, Attar and E. Moulinié. The singers are Marie Friederike Schöder, who won first prize in the Baroque voice section of the Competition in 2008, and Maryam Akhondy, one of the best- known interpreters of traditional Persian music. Together with guitarist Xavier Díaz-Latorre, Friederike Heumann and Turkish singer Nihan Devecioglu explore new forms of expression in these Mediterranean worlds of sound in a concert entitled “Nostalgia. The Sea of Memories” on May 28, 2018 in the chapel of St. Maria-Magdalena in the Moritzburg. The Baroque music of the Mediterranean region is exceptionally diverse; it spread far and wide, and by ship reached the ports of major cities of the time. As the most important cultural hub and a melting pot of cultures, the Republic of Vienna played a significant role in this de- velopment. In this concert, besides Baroque music you can hear the traditional music of the Sephardim, songs from Italy, Greece and Armenia, and Portuguese fado. In the concert “Corona Aurea” by Concerto Foscari on June 4, 2018, in the Cham- ber Music Hall of Handel House, works by G. F. Handel, M. Locke and A. Jarzębski will rub shoulders with compositions relating to Jewish mysticism in Safed (Galilee), creating a link to the places of origin and work of the authors of the Kabbalah Den- udata. Concerto Foscari is an ensemble of young international musicians with great affinity to Baroque music and a desire to instil in people of all generations a delight in the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as in the concert experience. They will perform an eclectic mixture of mainly seldom-heard or forgot- 15

PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle ten works performed on period instruments. Jigs, reels and hornpipes are the typical dance rhythms of Irish folk music that every- in Halle (Saale) since 1922 one knows and loves, and which even found their way into Baroque music. Irish May 25 – June 10, 2018 traditional and Baroque music by H. Purcell, G. Ph. Telemann, G. F. Handel and oth- ers can be heard on June 9, 2018, in the banqueting hall of the Leopoldina in a con- cert entitled “The Piper and the Faerie Queen”. It will be performed by the Irish Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug group Kilkenny and by Power on the Uilleann pipes – the Irish bagpipes. Press and PR Officer

Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: A new partnership: Handel Festival Halle and the London Handel [email protected] Festival are working together

Starting in 2018, the Handel Festivals in Halle an der Saale, where the composer was born and in London, where he died, will be working even more closely together. This partnership, which is to be continued in subsequent years, includes a performance of the Handel pasticcio Ormisda in Halle by the English early music ensemble Opera Settecento and a group of superb young soloists, including winners of the London Handel Singing Competition, in the Francke Foundations on May 26, 2018. Prize winners of the last London Handel Singing Competition in 2017 are also a part of this new cooperative venture. Visitors will be able to hear Polish mezzo-soprano Marcjanna Myrlak, the winner of the Regina Etz (first) Prize, and countertenor Jungkwon Jang from South Korea, who won the Michael Normington (audience) Prize, in a free lunchtime concert on Saturday, June 2, 2018, at 12 noon in Handel House, the house of the composer’s birth. In future years, the partnership will concentrate in particular on joint performances of unknown works and versions of works by Handel, and on fostering outstanding young musicians.

International Academic Conference

On May 28 and 29, 2018, the International Academic Conference of the Martin- Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg Institute of Music, Media and Speech Communi- cation, Musicology Department, will be taking place once again in collaboration with the Handel House Foundation and the Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft e. V. music so-ciety. The subject, “Migration Movements in Music. Music and Musicians from Foreign Lands 1650–1750” is based on the festival title. Academics from all over the world will be considering the topic of musical migratory movements from different perspectives and presenting their latest research findings. The conference will shed light on the opportunities, as well as the conflicts and challenges, that arose from the migratory movements of musicians and music in Europe in the period from 1650 to 1750. The purpose is also to help re-situate the case of Handel, as both symptomatic and exceptional, in the context of these movements.

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Admission-free and family events

The traditional start of the festival will take place on May 25, 2018, at 4pm, with the in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 official ceremony at the Handel Memorial. That evening, or rather night, the festi- val continues with the 16th Organ Night. For these events, no tickets are required.

In addition to this, two festival services will be held, in Halle Cathedral on May 27 Media contact: and in Halle's Marktkirche on June 3, 2018. Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer

On May 26, the open-air concert “Handel for Brass” and the “Family Baroque Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Festival” will be held for the third year running on Domplatz. The highpoint of this Email: will be the appearance by Sachsen-Anhalt-Brass – Die Mitteldeutsche Bläsersolisten, [email protected] a combination of two outstanding music bands from Central Germany. Admission to this exceptional concert is free for all visitors thanks to the support of Hallesche Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH. An admission-free “Nocturnal concert: Encounters between Worlds” will be performed by the duo Roots into the Future in the unique atmosphere of the chapel of St. Maria-Magdalena in the Moritzburg on June 1, 2018. In it, the singular sounds of the da gamba and saxophone will combine in works arranged or composed by the duo. Prize winners of the last London Handel Singing Competition, in 2017, can be heard in a free lunchtime concert on Saturday June 2, 2018, at 12 noon in Handel House (cf “A new partnership: Handel Festival Halle and the London Handel Festival are working together”). In the admission-free “Family Festival” on June 9, 2018, in the courtyard of Handel House, there will be painting, handicrafts, baking and much more besides. The highpoint will be the (paying) children’s concert “Au clair de la lune oder Die Farben der Nacht” (Au clair de la lune or The Colours of the Night)”, a puppet play with music for children age seven and over. The Family Festival is kindly sponsored by KATHI Rainer Thiele GmbH. There will also be performances of this children's concert on two other days in the Kinderpark day care centre (registration required). For teenagers, an education project will be held in cooperation with Georg-Cantor- Gymnasium secondary school on May 26, 2018, with a special focus on improvisa- tion in Baroque music. (For pupils of Georg-Cantor-Gymnasium secondary school only). Once again, there will also be free introductory talks on numerous concerts by Dr. Erik Dremel in the Glass Hall of Handel House. Many other free events and much more besides await visitors in the secondary programme. These can be found in the programme starting on page 58. The two open-air events – “Bridges to Classics” on June 9, and the closing concert on June 10, 2018 – will once again be enticing visitors to the breathtaking Galgen- berg Gorge. In “Bridges to Classics”, we witness a fascinating bridging of Baroque music and modern rock, sponsored by Stadtwerke Halle and presented by MDR Sachsen-Anhalt. The musical direction lies in the expert hands of saxophonist, con- ductor and university professor Bernd Ruf, one of the most innovative personalities in classical crossover. The evening’s special guest from the world of rock music will remain a secret until the spring. The closing concert of the Handel Festival will 17

PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle awaken your wanderlust, featuring world-famous and well-loved pieces by J.-Ph. Rameau, G. F. Handel, W. A. Mozart, E. Elgar and G. Rossini, the 150th anniversary of whose death will be celeb-rated in 2018. Traditionally it behoves Staatskapelle in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 Halle to sound the final chord of the Handel Festival, which it will do under the prov- en conductorship of Jan Michael Horstmann. And as every year, both evenings close with a spectacular fireworks display. Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Tip: Family ticket for the closing concert: one child under 14 accompanied by one Press and PR Officer adult paying the full ticket price pays only ten euros. Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: [email protected] “Foreign Worlds” – reflections on the festival theme

Curiously, “foreignness” awakens two different, contradictory emotions in people. We are fundamentally fascinated by foreignness. The effect of this even today in art is that artists are influenced by foreign styles and incorporate them into their own creative work. The avidness of people today for travelling to other countries and continents is also a reflection of this curiosity about otherness. Advertising exploits this taste for the exotic too, suggesting to us that if we buy a certain product we will be plunged into the idyllic and paradisiac – in other words, strange and “different” – world it places before our eyes. In the Baroque period, the fictive Arcadia with its pastoral idylls served the same purpose. But foreignness can also trigger a primeval fear – for example, when people are forced to go to foreign lands, or if a person suddenly feels like a stranger in their own country. This primeval fear is reflected etymologically in the German word Elend, meaning misery, which is derived from the Old High German word elilenti, meaning “another country”. This feeling can ultimately cause people to raise defenc- es to shut out what is foreign. Handel’s pasticcio Oreste cruelly explores the subject of foreignness, and the plot is a compelling study of people’s darker side: on the island of , King Toante terrorises everyone with his archaic, bloody methods, and shuts himself off from all foreigners. He orders that any foreigner who sets foot in his country should be executed, since an oracle announced that a stranger named Oreste would rob him of his ru-lership and his life. Oreste himself grew up abroad and, after his return to the court where he was born, took revenge for the murder of his father. He comes to Tauris to find rest from pursuit by the . There, he un- expectedly meets his sister, Iphigenia, who, as the priestess of Artemis is charged with executing King Toante’s cruel law and must kill all strangers. The Handel Festival, entitled “Foreign Worlds”, sets out on the one hand to investi- gate how experiences of foreignness in and also outside Europe are manifested in Handel’s work, and on the other, how the Halle-born composer adjusted as an intra- European migrant abroad. ’s heroic narrative of a musician at whose feet people in all the places he worked readily threw themselves glosses over the fact that throughout his career Handel, as a foreigner, had to deal with the phe- nomenon of his linguistic, religious, cultural and aesthetic alterity and prove himself in these foreign environments. Whether it was the “new world” of opera in Ham- burg, the versatile and diversified musical culture of the Italian cities, London with the musical life pe-culiar to it, fluctuating between the national (English) and interna- tional (Franco-Italian) idioms: in all these different milieus Handel had to re-adjust

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle and try to find a way of reconciling everything that made him what he was with the foreignness with which he was confronted. This was a challenge Handel shared with many European contemporaries, who since in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 the end of the Thirty Years War had become far more internationally oriented. Close- ly bound up with this migration of musicians was the transfer of different kinds of mu-sical notation, singing practice and playing styles into all kinds of cultural milieus, Media contact: which triggered friction and conflict but also set in motion numerous phenomena of Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer hybridisation. The Handel Festival aims to help shed new light on the opportunities, Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 as well as on the conflicts and challenges, which arose from the migratory move- Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 ments of musicians and music in Europe in the period from 1650 to 1750, and at the Email: [email protected] same time resituate the specific figure of Handel in the context of these movements. In a further sense, this theme is also intended as a historical reflection on the current crisis in Europe, between the deliberate raising of barriers against migratory move- ments and the political will to integrate foreigners. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hirschmann and Clemens Birnbaum

NEW: Official start of advance ticket sales for Handel in Autumn

The Handel in Autumn festival will be taking place once again this year, from No- vember 15-18. On the Friday evening at 7.30pm, Simone Kermes and Concerto Köln will be performing in a gala concert in Ulrichskirche concert hall. But before that, at 7.30pm on the Thursday evening, there will be a performance of Alexander’s Feast or the Power of Musick featuring the Handel Festival Orchestra Halle and the Johann Friedrich Reichardt University Choir under the musical direction of Jens Lorenz, also in Ulrichskirche concert hall. On the Saturday at 2pm, the curators of the annual exhibition So fremd, so nah (“So foreign, so close”) in Handel House will take visitors on a guided tour of the exhibi- tion. That same evening, at 6pm, the internationally renowned countertenor Leandro Marziotte, together with the Radio Antiqua ensemble will present works by G. F. Handel, G. B. Bononcini, N. Porpora, G. P. Telemann and G. Sammartini in the Chamber Music Room of Handel House. On Sunday 18 November, at 11am in the Freylinghausen Room of the Francke Foun- dations, the celebrated pianist will present her programme "333 – Recital for 333rd anniversary of the births of G. F. Handel, J. S. Bach and D. Scarlat- ti.” This will be followed at 3pm by a staged performance of Berenice, Regina d’Egitto in Halle Opera House.

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Handel Prize winner 2018

The 2018 “City of Halle Handel Prize, awarded by the Handel House Foundation, in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 goes to the US mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato.

With this award, the Handel House Foundation Board of Trustees chaired by the Mayor of Halle, Dr. Bernd Wiegand, are paying tribute to her outstanding services to Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Handel’s music. The Handel Prize is a gold and enamel brooch in the shape of notes Press and PR Officer from Handel’s Messiah. Joyce DiDonato will receive the award during her gala con- Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 cert, “In War and Peace – Harmony through Music” on Saturday May 26, 2018, in Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: George Frideric Handel Hall. [email protected]

The Handel Prize is awarded to her for her many years of outstanding Handel inter- pretations, thanks to which she has contributed to the worldwide popularity of the city of Halle’s great son, says Clemens Birnbaum, director of the Handel House Foundation and the Handel Festival’s executive director. Several-time Grammy award winner Joyce DiDonato is one of the greatest mezzo- sopranos of her time. She was born on February 13, 1969, in Prairie Village in the American state of Kansas. Her repertoire ranges from Handel to contemporary mu- sic. For this eclecticism she is acclaimed and respected worldwide. Joyce DiDonato is a familiar face in the world’s most famous opera houses – whether in London, Milan, Vienna, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, Chicago, San Francisco or Tokyo, she charms audiences and critics alike. She also gives concerts all over the world, always working with top musicians and ensembles. She has earned global fame with her numerous recordings with, for example the Il Complesso Barocco ensemble led by Alan Curtis, William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants and Antonio Pap- pano, and thanks to her extensive tours of Europe, Asia and North and South Ameri- ca. Musically, Joyce DiDonato is always breaking new ground, inspired by many different artistic influences. Her staged concert “In War and Peace – Harmony through Music” sets unusual accents and is absolutely in tune with the times. At her gala concert at the 2018 Handel Festival, she will be accompanied by the award-winning ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro under the musical direction of Maxim Emelyanychev. The City of Halle Handel Prize is awarded to individuals or ensembles for special artis- tic, academic or political and cultural achievements which correspond to Halle’s ef- forts to preserve Handel’s musical heritage at the international level.

Further information is available at: https://joycedidonato.com/.

Change of bill

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Jesse Siebenberg (Supertramp) is the star guest of Bridges to Classics 2018 in Halle (Saale) since 1922 The US musician Jesse Siebenberg will be the star guest of this year's open-air con- May 25 – June 10, 2018 cert Bridges to Classics in the Galgenberg Gorge, part of the Handel Festival, on 9 June 2018. He will be joined by Bernd Ruf, the GermanPops Band & Singers and Media contact: Staatskapelle Halle to bridge the gap between classical, rock, electronic and orches- Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer tral music. He will be replacing the former Rainbow and Deep Purple singer Joe Lynn Turner, who was hospitalised with cardiac problems during his tour in Minsk, Bela- Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 rus, and is unfortunately unable to appear. Email: [email protected]

Jesse Siebenberg has been the lead singer of the British pop and rock band Super- tramp since he was 20. He was born in London to a family of musicians. His father, Bob Siebenberg, was a drummer with Supertramp. He has been composing his own music since he was twelve years old and developed into a multi-instrumentalist. Jesse Siebenberg studied film scoring, music production/engineering at the Berklee College of Music. He has already performed with numerous international musicians in the recording studio and on stage, for example with Lady Gaga, A Fine Frenzy, Kenny Loggins, Billy Preston and Lukas Nelson.

Every year at the Handel Festival, Bridges to Classics entices thousands of visitors to the breathtaking natural backdrop of the Galgenberg Gorge. The musical direction lies in the expert hands of saxophonist, conductor and university professor Bernd Ruf, one of the most innovative personalities in classical crossover. This open-air concert traditionally closes with a thundering display of fireworks against the night sky –a not-to-be-missed highlight of the Handel Festival!

This symphonic rock concert is supported by Stadtwerke Halle and presented by MDR Sachsen-Anhalt.

Further information is available at: http://jessesiebenberg.com/.

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The Handel House Foundation museums during the 2018 Han- del Festival in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018 Handel House

Große Nikolaistrasse 5, 06108 Halle Special guided tours: Media contact: Phone: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 221 Maria Scheunpflug June 1 and 8, 2018, 3pm Ι Historical Press and PR Officer Email: [email protected] musical instruments and annual exhi- Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 bition Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Special opening times during the Email: “Halbmond, Drachen und Chi- 2018 Handel Festival: [email protected] nesenhut” (Crescent Moon, Drag- daily from 10am to 7pm ons and Chinese Hats) Permanent exhibitions: A guided tour of chinoiseries and HANDEL – The European other foreign elements in European Historical Musical Instruments musical instrument-making, with Annual exhibition: Christiane Barth (director of the Han- So fremd, so nah (So foreign, so del House Foundation Museum, in close) German) Duration: February 23, 2018, to June 2, 2018, 11am | Annual exhibi- January 10, 2019 tion Curated by: Dr. Konstanze Musketa, “Aufbruch in fremde Welten” Christiane Barth (Away to Foreign Worlds) * Guided tour by Dr. Konstanze Musketa, direc- tor of the Handel House Foundation Library (in German)

*Tickets: €7, number of participants limited, reservation possible up to 15 minutes before start on 0345 500 90 103, [email protected]

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach House

Grosse Klausstrasse 12 (entrance on “Durch mühsames Reisen erlang- Hallorenring), 06108 Halle (Saale) tes Renommee: Hallische Mus- Phone: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 221 ikerbiografien zwischen Migration Email: [email protected] und Sesshaftigkeit” (Renown achieved through wearisome jour- Special opening times during the neying: migration and sedentarism 2018 Handel Festival: in the lives of Halle-born musi- Friday to Sunday: 10am - 6pm cians) Permanent exhibition: A special tour of the “Musikstadt Hal- Musikstadt Halle (“Halle, the City le” (Halle, the City of Music) exhibi- of Music”) tion: Dr. Konstanze Musketa, director Special guided tour: of the Handel House Foundation Li- May 27, 2018, 11.30am | Wilhelm brary (in German) * Friedemann Bach House

*Tickets: €7, number of participants limited, reservation possible up to 15 minutes before start on 0345 500 90 103, [email protected] 22

PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

Handel Festival 2018: Facts and Figures

in Halle (Saale) since 1922 Dates: May 25 - June 10, 2018 May 25 – June 10, 2018

Admission-paying events: 53 Total number of events: over 100 Media contact: Venues: 26 Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer

Regional venues: 3 Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: - Goethe Theatre, Bad Lauchstädt [email protected] - Carl Maria von Weber Theatre, Bernburg - Anhaltisches Theater Dessau

New venues: 2

- Halle Salt-Panners and Saltworks Museum - Anhaltisches Theater Dessau

Operas: 8

- Rinaldo HWV 7b - Muzio Scevola HWV 13 - Giulio Cesare in Egitto HWV 17 - Arianna in Creta HWV 32 - Berenice, Regina d‘ Egitto HWV 38 - Parnasso in festa HWV 73 - Ormisda HWV A3 - Oreste HWV A11

Oratorios: 4

- Messiah HWV 56 - Samson HWV 57 - Jephtha HWV 70 - Jazziah (world premiere)

World premieres and new productions of previously performed works: 5 - Jazziah – Handel’s Messiah reloaded (world premiere) - Hercules (world premiere of a pasticcio of Hercules settings by G. Fr. Handel and Joh. Seb. Bach by Clemens Flämig) - My Handel (world premiere of new Handel arrangements by Dieter Ilg) - Muzio Scevola, HWV 13 (first staged performance since the eighteenth century) - Samson, HWV 57 (first modern-day performance of the soloist version of 1743)

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

German premieres: 3 - Ormisda, HWV A3 (German premiere) in Halle (Saale) since 1922 - Rinaldo HWV 7b (German premiere of the 1731 version) May 25 – June 10, 2018 a - Tu fedel? Tu costante? HWV 171 (German premiere of the version of this Handel cantata discovered in 2016) Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Other new productions: 1 Press and PR Officer

- Chandos Te Deum HWV 281 Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416

Email: Performances based on the [email protected] Halle Handel Edition: 5 - Rinaldo HWV 7b (premiere based on the HHE) - Arianna in Creta, HWV 32 (premiere based on the HHE) - Berenice, Regina d‘ Egitto HWV 38 (premiere based on the HHE) - Samson HWV 57 (premiere based on the HHE) - Jephtha HWV 70 - Parnasso in festa HWV 73 (premiere based on the HHE) - Tu fedel? Tu costante? HWV 171a (premiere based on the HHE) - Chandos Te Deum HWV 281 (premiere based on the HHE) - Oreste HWV A11

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

Patrons and sponsors

in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018

Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer

Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: [email protected]

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018

Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer

Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: [email protected]

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018

Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer

Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: [email protected]

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PRESS KIT 2018 Handel Festival Halle

in Halle (Saale) since 1922 May 25 – June 10, 2018

Media contact: Maria Scheunpflug Press and PR Officer

Tel.: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 126 Fax: +49 (0) 345 / 500 90 416 Email: [email protected]

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