Handel: Theodora, HWV 60
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GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Theodora, HWV 60
Louise Alder; Arcangelo; Jonathan Cohen; Adam Plachetka; Tim Mead; Stuart Jackson; Anna Stéphany
[ Alpha Classics / 3 CD ]
Release Date: Friday 23 February 2024
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Among Handel's seventeen English oratorios, Theodora (1750) is unique. The story is not taken from the Bible, it is set in the Christian era, there is no national triumph and it does not end in joy. At the end, the hero and heroine are dead, the community with which the audience identifies is in mortal danger, and the final chorus is in a minor key. As a musical drama, it is the direct ancestor of Dialogues des Carmelites. At the age of 65, Handel produced a work that was too radical and complex for most of his audience. Today, Theodora is regarded as a benchmark "thinking person's opera", both deeply stimulating and powerfully moving.
The balance of Cohen's vigorously confident singers and players allows him to make his ensemble a major character in the story...The soloists also play their parts, led by Louise Alder as the death-welcoming Theodora.
- Gramaphone
[The opening] air and chorus, "Go, My Faithful Soldier and Draw a Blessing Down" defies expectations in the sheer fluency and splendour of the singing, quickly establishing not just Cohen's modus operandi here but another hallmark of this brilliant new recording: the way in which each singer so fully inhabits their character in relation to the entire tragedy.
- Limelight Magazine
Tracks:
Theodora, HWV 68, Overture
Theodora, HWV 68, Pt. I
Theodora, HWV 68, Pt. II
Theodora, HWV 68, Pt. III
