Composed between 1718 and 1720, Handel’s Esther is sometimes described as the ‘first English Oratorio’, but is in fact a hybrid form, mixing elements of oratorio, masque, pastoral and opera.
Month: May 2013
The Damnation of Faust, London
Hector Berlioz’s lÈgende dramatique, La Damnation de Faust, exists somewhere between cantata and opera. Berlioz’s flexible attitude to dramatic form made the piece unworkable on the stages of early 19th century Paris and his music is so vivid that you wonder whether the piece needs staging at all.
Kate Lindsey at Glyndebourne
It would seem a logical step for the mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey to take on
the role of the Composer in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos.