News Händel-Festspiele Karlsruhe

To give perspective to Hamburg Staatsoper’s excuses for sacking a soprano at four months pregnant, consider the case of Layla Claire who (we hear) sang the title role of Alcina at seven months at the Händel-Festspiele Karlsruhe in February. Layla and her baritone husband John Chest welcomed the birth of their second child on April 17. John […]

One can only imagine the frenzy that would have occurred in the late 1950s had one of the leading opera composers of the day (Britten? Poulenc? Menotti?) written an opera for Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi—with Franco Corelli as their leading man. That’s what it must have been like in 1726 London when Handel composed Alessandro for perhaps the three most famous (and expensive) singers of the day. Despite its initial runaway success, today it remains one of Handel’s least performed works; however, that may be changing with the release of not one, but two new recordings. Established by a collective of the British aristocracy to assure a steady stream of Italian opera in London, the Royal Academy of Music opened in 1720 with Giovanni Porta’s Numitore quickly followed by Radamisto by Handel. His trio of masterpieces (written in less than year)--Giulio Cesare, Tamerlano, and Rodelinda-- premiered there, their […]