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Promoting Historically-Inspired Performances of Early Music and Baroque Opera

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Operas | Harpsichord Recitals | Organ Recitals

Operas with Historically-informed Staging

Only historically-inspired stagings of early opera without modern dancers and acrobats will be listed.  Please let me know of any that I have missed.

Check the Corpo Barocco website for historical stagings in Europe by Sigrid T'Hooft.

Handel. Amadigi di Gaula. (HWV 11, London 1715). Andrew Parrott, FestspielOrchester Göttingen. Stage Director & Choreographer: Sigrid T'Hooft. Amadigi: Mareike Braun, mezzo-soprano; Oriana: Stefanie True, soprano; Melissa: Judith Gauthier, soprano; Orgando: Johanna Ness, soprano; Dardano: Markéta Cukrová, mezzo-soprano. Göttingen Handel Festival, May 2012. Details.

J.C. Bach. Zanaida (London 1763). David Stern, Opera Fuoco. Stage Director: Sigrid T'Hooft, Corpo Barocco. Stage Sets: Wolfram Zimmer & Achim von Heimburg. Costumes: Centre Musique Baroque Versailles / Claire Planchez. Zanaida: Sara Hershkowitz, Roselane: Chantal Santon, Mustafa: Pierrick Boisseau, Osira: Vannina Santoni, Ciiseo: Daphné Touchais, Aglatida: Majdouline Zerari, Silvera: Julie Fioretti, Gianguir: Jeffrey Thompson. Photos of the 2011 performances at Bachfest Leipzig. 10 & 11 February 2012, Théâtre de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (near Paris), France. To be recorded for release on Zig-Zag Territoires. Details.

Alessandro Scarlatti. Il Tigrane (Naples 1715). Gilbert Bezzina, Ensemble Baroque de Nice. Historically informed staging by Gilbert Blin. Tomiri: Olga Pasichnyk, soprano; Tigrane: Flavio Ferri-Benedetti, countertenor; Meroe: Yulia van Doren, soprano; Policare: José Lemos, countertenor; Doraspe: Anicio Zorzi Guistiniani, tenor; Dorilla: Mireille Lebel, mezzo-soprano; Orcone: Douglas Williams, bass. Opéra de Nice, 1, 3, 5 June 2012. Details. Académie Desprez.

Hasse. Enea in Caonia (Serenata, Naples 1727). HIP staging in the magnificent baroque theatre at Český Krumlov castle, 21, 22, 23 September 2012, Czech Republic. Direction and Baroque Expression: Zuzana Vrbová. Musical Director: Ondřej Macek, Hofmusici. Jana Dvořáková, soprano; Jana Bínová Koucká, soprano; Veronika Mráčková Fučíková, mezzo-soprano; Pavla Štěpničková, mezzo-soprano; Pavel Valenta.  Details.

Monteverdi. Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. Yale Baroque Opera Project. Musical direction by Grant Herreid. Orchestral direction by Robert Mealy. Stage direction by Toni Dorfman. Performed by students. 4 & 5 May 2012, 7:30 pm. University Theater, 222 York Street, New Haven, CT. Free admission. Details.

Handel. Almira, Königen von Castilien. (HWV 1, Hamburg 1705). Boston Early Music Festival, 9-16 June 2013. Paul O'Dette & Stephen Stubbs, Artistic Directors. Stage Director: Gilbert Blin.

Christoph Graupner (1683-1760). Antiochus und Stratonica (Hamburg 1708). Boston Early Music Festival, 2015? Postponed again during the continuing great recession. This opera will require a cast and crew of 100. As an example of why it was not susceptible to scaling back, Paul O'Dette cited the four separate oboe parts (!) during a pre-opera lecture at the 2009 BEMF.

Harpsichord Recitals of Note

The Harpsichord Situation in North America

Most harpsichord recitals, whether on modern or antique instruments, sound terrible, for a number of reasons. First, the world is swamped with bad instruments, which include the preponderance of harpsichords for hire. Second, many fundamentally sound instruments are too weakly voiced or adjusted and can barely be heard by the audience. Third, harpsichords often are moved to concert venues immediately before recitals and do not have time to adjust to differences in temperature and humidity. Finally, recital instruments rarely are attended to by first class tuners, and sometimes the tuners are overruled by performers with strange notions about temperament.

Consequently, I will list selected forthcoming recitals in the eastern US that are likely to offer exceptional sound.

The Dumont Concerts

Recitals on the magnificent 1707 Dumont harpsichord and 1635 Ioannes Ruckers harpsichord at the home of the owners, Karen and Peter Flint, near Wilmington, Delaware, have become annual events. Tickets are available from the Delaware Theatre Company, (302) 594-1100, fax (302) 594-1107. See the Brandywine Baroque website for details.

Organ Recitals of Note

The Organ Situation in North America

While organs based on designs from the baroque era are much easier to find in North America than they were a few years ago, they still represent only a tiny percentage of the pipe organs. Large organs almost invariably are purchased by churches. Unless a church has a forceful music director who specializes in early music, the directors usually select a modern instrument with electro-pneumatic action, electric stops, high wind pressure and equal temperament.

As for small organs, the diversity of "off the shelf" models seems to be improving. The proliferation of early music groups must have led to a significant increase in demand for continuo organs.

The new Craighead-Saunders Organ in Christ Church, Rochester, New York is based on the best preserved northern European organ of the late 18th Century, the 1776 Casparini organ in Vilnius, Lithuania. For details, see issue 2 of Resonance (pdf). A symposium and inaugural concerts was held during October 2008. Brochure (pdf).

The ELPF Bach Organ Project: Taylor & Boody will build an organ after the 3-manual, 53-stop, 1743-46 Hildebrandt organ in Naumburg [photos] for the forthcoming multi-building Constellation Center at Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA (next to M.I.T.). The Constellation Center will also include the Odeon, a baroque opera house with an historical shutter-and-groove scenery system, and a film theater with one of the finest surviving Wurlitzer theater organs.

Another recent Taylor & Boody project is the 35-stop, meantone organ (photo) with split accidentals for the Yale Institute of Sacred Music at Marquand Chapel, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT. Forthcoming recitals: James David Christie, 18 September 2011, 8 pm - Bach, Buxtehude, Böhm, Praetorius, Sweelinck; Martin Jean, 11 December 2011, 5 pm - Buxtehude; Masaaki Suzuki, 21 April 2011, 5 pm - Sweelinck.

The Cornell Baroque Organ project is building a an instrument after the Schnitger organ at Charlottenburg, destroyed by American and British bombers in World War II. Details.

In addition, the Eastman School of Music has installed a newly-restored, historic, full-sized Italian baroque organ in the University of Rochester's Memorial Art Gallery. An inaugural festival was held in October 2005. Details.


Copyright © 2002-2011 John Wall