OPERA GALA WEEK / CONCERT OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA

10 June 2024, Monday
Time 17:00
Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb



Georg Friedrich Haendel fell in love with opera during his first trip to Berlin in his youth and started composing works in this genre when he was twenty while working in Hamburg. However, it was only after several years of his stay in Italy – the homeland of dramatic music, concertante technique, and bel canto – that he truly spread his wings. Just several months after leaving Italy, in 1711, he presented his brilliant Rinaldo in London. The success of the premiere not only propelled Haendel’s career but also made its mark on the history of music in the British Isles. The triumph of the first Italian opera written especially for the English stage paved the way for subsequent operatic projects – both by Handel and by his competitors.

The favor of the English audience was sought not only by composers but also by the most distinguished singers of the time, such as Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni gifted with exceptional voices, and Senesino, a castrato with an extraordinary timbre. They were the first to perform Haendel’s moving arias and duets, which are included in the concert program. In the tumultuous world of opera, love shines with many shades – from happiness and fulfillment (in Volate amori or Bramo aver mille vite), through the sorrow of having to part again (Io t’abbraccio), to anger (Venti turbini) and despair (Ah! Mio cor). After all – as the lovers Tirinto and Rosmene from the opera Imeneo sing in the duet Per le porte del tormento – “there is no rose without thorns, nor pleasure without suffering.”

The audience will transported into the world of passion and baroque chiaroscuro by the Artists of the Polish Royal Opera – Olga Pasiecznik, Anna Radziejewska, and the Period Instruments Ensemble Capella Regia Polona, led by maestro Krzysztof Garstka on the harpsichord.

PROGRAM

Georg Friedrich Haendel

Sinfonia from the opera Floridante, HWV 14

Stille amare, aria (Tolomeo) from the opera Tolomeo, Re d’Egitto, HWV 25

Volate amori, aria (Ginevra) from the opera Ariodante, HWV 33

Io t’abbraccio, duet (Rodelinda and Bertarido) from the opera Rodelinda, Regina de’Longobardi, HWV 19

Venti turbini, aria (Rinaldo) from the opera Rinaldo, HWV 7

Ah! Mio cor, aria (Alcina) from the opera Alcina, HWV 34

Ouverture to the opera Imeneo, HWV 41

Per le porte del tormento, duet (Rosmene and Tirinto) from the opera Imeneo, HWV 41

Bramo aver mille vite, duet (Ginevra and Ariodante) from the opera Ariondante, HWV 33

PERFORMERS

OLGA PASIECZNIK SOPRANO

ANNA RADZIEJEWSKA MEZZOSOPRANO

THE PERIOD INSTRUMENTS ENSEMBLE OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA CAPELLA REGIA POLONA

KRZYSZTOF GARSTKA HARPSICHORD, CONDUCTOR


Duration: approx. 1h