"Powerful and fresh"
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Enthusiastic press response to the premiere of Handel's opera "Alcina" at the HfMT Forum.
Here are some of the press comments:
"The production of George Frideric Handel's opera "Alcina" is lavish and professional. One forgets that this is a university stage and not an established opera house. (...)The singers have undergone a lot of hardening before the premiere, because this is not a nice student performance. In addition to vocal perfection, great acting skills are required, the stage design is spectacular, and they are accompanied by the professionals of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Willem Wentzel."
(NDR Kultur)
"In the Forum of the University of Music and Drama, the final production of the opera class as a summer production (until July 3) was a delight for all the senses. "Alcina", George Frideric Handel's magical opera in the truest sense of the word, contains all the musical and dramaturgical ingredients that make the work an emotionally charged marvel when the "ingredients" are right. Here, they were consistently of a high standard and were celebrated accordingly. Love, lust, suffering, jealousy, pity and revenge - these emotions determine the action in abundance in endless, infinitely beautiful, technically tricky da capo arias, which the young singers have to master convincingly not only vocally but also dramatically. This is fantastic. The stylish, opulent costumes by Caroline Packenius and Sophie Simon deserve special praise."
(Welt)
About the performance:
Can a baroque opera be more modern, have more to do with the reality of our lives today? George Frideric Handel's great love for mankind knows our imperfections and insecurities so well that he already seems to anticipate Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. Strict moral principles have had their day, gender boundaries are blurred, individual concepts of love and desires differ radically, the clumsy final message of a brave new ideal world is missing. Even the classical linearity of the narrative is abandoned in Alcina in favor of precisely drawn situations: Handel's touching arias - hardly ever has he composed more absolute earworm hits in an opera - are an empathetic soul-searching.
Handel's magic opera is therefore a direct template for the singers of the opera class, who are completing their Master's degree in the production by star director Philipp Himmelmann (Tosca, Bregenz Festival; Mefistofele and La Bohème, Baden-Baden Whitsun and Autumn Festivals). He places the presence and strength of the young singers at the center of his production, in which he explores questions of individual happiness with them. The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra accompanies the elite singers under the direction of Willem Wentzel. Set designer David Hohmann uses the possibilities of the renovated Forum to create a spectacular scenery that increasingly disenchants Alcina's idyllic park landscape in parallel with the decline of her happiness.
George Frideric Handel:
Alcina
Musical direction Willem Wentzel
Director Philipp Himmelmann
Stage David Hohmann
Costumes Caroline Packenius, Sophie Simon
A final production with the singers of the opera class of the Theaterakademie Hamburg and the Symphoniker Hamburg
A-premiere
Sunday, 10.6. at 18.00 hrs
B premiere
Thursday, 14.6. at 7.30 pm
Further performances
Saturday, 16.6. at 7.30 pm
Saturday, 23.6. at 7.30 pm
Monday, 25.6. at 7.30 pm
Saturday, 30.6. at 7.30 pm
Tuesday, 3.7. at 7.30 pm
Forum of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, Harvestehuder Weg 12
Admission: 28 euros, reduced 10 euros
Tickets: Concert box office Gerdes: Tel. 040 45 33 26 & 44 02 98
konzertkassegerdes.de