Heroes & Heroines Booklet (New Times) 5/5/05 9:03 Page 2 CORO The Sixteen Edition CORO The Sixteen Edition Sarah Connolly Heroes and Heroines Handel To find out more about HARRY CHRISTOPHERS The Sixteen, concerts tours THE SYMPHONY OF or to buy CDs, visit www.thesixteen.com C O R 1 6 0 2 5 HARMONY AND INVENTION Heroes & Heroines Booklet (New Times) 5/5/05 9:03 Page 46 FROM HERCULES (Dejanira) I have to confess thatOfficial this recording launch of makes‘Heroes me and feel Heroines’ very Sarah Connolly proud. Proud, in thatat everythe 2004 singer Handel who in has Oxford ever Festival,left The bm Sinfonia (Act 2) Sixteen to pursue a solomade career, possible has through been, andthe generousindeed is, Heroes and Heroines very successful. Sarahsupport Connolly, of The however, Zvi Meitar is more Family than Fund. that – she is exceptional. bn Recitative George Frideric Handel She sang with theRecording group in Producer: the late Mark 1980s Brown and early 1990s and her virtuosity,Recording stunning Engineer: performing Mike Hatch ability Dissembling, false, perfidious Hercules!HARRY CHRISTOPHERSThe sun should cease to dawn, the silver moon and vivacious personalityRecorded were at St. very Silas muchthe Martyr, apparent then; Did he not swear, when THEfirst heSYMPHONY woo’d my OFlove, HARMONYBe blotted AND fromINVENTION her orb, ere he prov’d false? Kentish Town, London there was always an additional surge of electricity when Photography: Peter Warren. www.peterwarren.co.uk she was around. Now, of course, Sarah is one ofVocal this Consultant: country’s Gerald finest Martin singers Moore and a great Handelian. I had the pleasure of conductingCostume her inDesign: Handel’s Sue Blane ‘Ariodante’ at Air Cease, ruler of the day Hair Stylist: Charlotte Murray English National Opera two seasons ago. For thoseMakeup of Artist:you who Daniel have Sandler not seen her on Cease, ruler of the day, to rise, To your bright beams he made appeal, stage, you simply must; she is a consummate artist.Computer setting and printing of music: Peter Jones nor, Cynthia, gild the ev’ning skies. with endless night his falsehood seal! This recording is dedicated to the loving This is no run-of-the-mill Handel arias disc;Design: Sarah Richard and I hadBoxall no Design desire Associates just to pile memory of my mother, Jane Connolly. together her favourite arias. We wanted to depict2004 not The only Sixteen the closeProductions links Ltd. between © 2004 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. bo Accompagnato Where shall I fly opera and oratorio in Handel’s works but also equate the position of hero and heroine. While both ‘Alcina’ and ‘Ariodante’ are epic operas and ‘Solomon’ is a For further information about Where shall I fly, where hide this guilty head? Megaera fell, and black Tisiphone! sacred oratorio, ‘Hercules’ falls into the gap (orThe perhaps Symphony it bridges of Harmony that and gap). Invention It is a Oh fatal error of misguided love! See the dreadful sisters rise! secular oratorio with an English libretto but conceivedand The Sixteen as an recordings opera although on Coro, Handel finally termed it a ‘Musical Drama’. call +44 (0) 1865 793 999 Oh, cruel Nessus, how art thou reveng’d! Their baneful presence taints the skies! or email [email protected] We close the disc with one of the greatest mad scenes in baroque music, that of Wretch that I am, by meSARAH Alcides CONNOLLY dies! AND HARRY CHRISTOPHERSSee the snaky WOULD whips LIKE they bear! www.thesixteen.com These impious hands haveTO THANK sent my ALL injur’d THOSE WHOlord MADEWhat THIS RECORDING yellings rend POSSIBLE: my tortur’d ear! Dejanira’s (Hercules’ wife) vision of the furies. It was also the last piece we recorded untimely to the shades! LetHelen me B.be Casey mad! Hide Rodneyme from and their Sylvia hatedGalpin sight, and, quite frankly, none of us wanted these sessions to end. It has been a privilege for Chain me, ye Furies, Theto yourZvi Meitar iron Family beds, Fund friendly shadesAnthony of Fryblackest night! everybody concerned to be a part of this recording. and lash my guilty ghost withMark whips Loveday of scorpions! Alas! No restJane theConnolly guilty find N See, see, they come! Alecto with her snakes!Photography by Peterfrom Warren, the pursuing furies of the mind! www.peterwarren.co.uk 142 153 Heroes Booklet 5/8/04 2:33 pm Page 4 Sarah Connolly (‘The Silver Tassie’), Dido (‘The Trojans’) ALCINA (Ruggiero) THE SYMPHONY OF and the title role in ‘The Rape of Lucretia’ 1 Sinfonia (Act 3) 0.50 HARMONY AND INVENTION Born in County Durham, Sarah Connolly which was televised for the BBC. 2 Sta nell’ Ircana 5.50 studied piano and singing at the Royal Her concert engagements include VIOLIN College of Music. appearances at the Salzburg Festival, Vienna 3 Mi lusingha il dolce affetto 7.10 Walter Reiter (leader), Her U.S. debut in the title role of Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie and the Theresa Caudle, Elen O’Dell, Hannah Tibell, Jane Gordon, ‘Ariodante’ for the New York City Opera, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with such SOLOMON (Queen of Sheba) during the 1999/2000 season, was hailed as conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Miles Golding, Claire Mera Nelson, 4 Sinfonia – an enormous success and was described in Davis, Daniel Harding, Edo de Waart and Claire Sansom, Sarah Moffatt, Arrival of the Queen of Sheba 3.00 the New York Times as ‘Phenomenal... Philippe Herreweghe. She is also a regular Rebecca Rule The voice is dark and true, remarkably guest artist at the BBC Promenade Concerts 5 Recit & Aria: VIOLA flexible and filled with the required heat.’ at the Royal Albert Hall. Committed to Will the sun forget to streak 6.00 Stefanie Heichelheim, Emma Alter Subsequent engagements in the U.S. include promoting new music, her world premiere CELLO the San Francisco Opera singing Ino and Juno performances include Mark-Anthony ARIODANTE (Ariodante) Jane Coe, Helen Gough in ‘Semele’, returns to NYCO as Romeo Turnage’s ‘Twice through the heart’ with 6 Sinfonia to Act 2 0.30 (‘I Capuleti ed i Montecchi’) and in the title The Schoenberg Ensemble conducted by DOUBLE BASS role of ‘Xerxes’, and her debut at the Oliver Knussen and Jonathan Harvey’s 7 Recit & Aria: Scherza infida 8.20 Jan Spencer Metropolitan Opera as Annio (‘La Clemenza ‘Songs of Li Po’ at the Aldeburgh Festival. 8 Dopo notte 7.00 FLUTE di Tito’). European appearances include She has recorded Rameau’s ‘Les Fêtes Christine Garratt Nerone (‘L’Incoronazione di Poppea’) at the d’Hebe’ with Les Arts Florissants under ALCINA (Ruggiero) OBOE Maggio Musicale in Florence, the title role in William Christie (winner of the 1998 Mark Baigent, Catherine Latham ‘The Rape of Lucretia’ at the Munich Festival Gramophone Early Opera Award and 9 Entrée des songes agréables 2.00 and her debuts at the Paris Opera as Sesto nominated for a Grammy Award), Bach bl Verdi prati 4.20 BASSOON (‘Giulio Cesare’) and the Theatre des Champs Cantatas with Collegium Vocale and Philippe Sally Jackson Herreweghe, Vivaldi’s ‘Juditha Triumphans’ Elysées as Juno. At English National Opera HERCULES (Dejanira) HORN her roles include Xerxes, Ariodante, Ruggiero with the King’s Consort, and a recital disc of Anneke Scott, Robin Cane (‘Alcina’), Dido (‘Dido and Aeneas’), Susie Schönberg songs with Iain Burnside. bm Sinfonia (Act 2) 3.00 bn Recit & Aria: Cease, HARPSICHORD ruler of the day 3.30 Matthew Hall, Alastair Ross “Connolly seals her reputation as our best Handel mezzo in many years. The voice is richly bo Where shall I fly 7.00 THEORBO coloured, delicately used but incisively dramatic. She brings Handel to open-hearted expressive life... David Miller, Eligio Quinteiro she knows the style through and through, and makes the maximum effort within it.” Total timing 65.00 HARP FINANCIAL TIMES Siobhan Armstrong 4 5 Heroes Booklet 5/8/04 2:33 pm Page 6 sprang a powerful tension between idealized singers portraying his operatic heroes as much boisterous ‘Sta nell’Ircana’, in which the singer’s Heroes and Heroines moral values and credible human situations. variety as possible in the arias they were given vocal display is given additional sheen by Heroes in Handel’s world were in short supply. Family quarrels, thwarted ambition, professional to sing. Ruggiero in ‘Alcina’ is a case in point. Handel’s inclusion of a prominent brace of The early 18th century was an era which, like rivalry and love in all its aspects were no less Doubtless he interested the composer rather horns in the score. any other, admired bravery and courage, genuine for 18th century men and women than more for being essentially a flawed character, Carestini had already made his mark on looking back nostalgically to the fearless they are for us, but the Baroque era liked to one whose male energy is currently misused London audiences in ‘Ariodante’, premiered at warriors and doughty deeds of the past, yet filter these through plots derived mostly (though (according to the severe ethical system operated Covent Garden in 1735. Here too Handel had found it difficult to create a heroic dimension not exclusively) from the classical past. The in Baroque opera) in the service of Alcina, the sought to vary the style of hero’s arias, and in around their modern equivalents. One of the characters, seldom more than half a dozen, were sorceress who has imposed a species of erotic this case the libretto made his task easier. The period’s most famous marching songs, ‘The exclusively royal and noble, and the hero was slavery on him. Hence Handel’s insistence on drama, based on the same story which inspired British