Angelika Kirchschlager mezzo-soprano; Ian Bostridge tenor; Aurora Orchestra; Nicholas Collon conductor; The English Concert; Laurence Cummings director, harpsichord

Performers

Angelika Kirchschlager

mezzo-soprano

Ian Bostridge

tenor

Aurora Orchestra

Nicholas Collon

conductor

The English Concert

Laurence Cummings

director, harpsichord

Nadja Zwiener

solo violin

Programme

Handel

Cantata: O numi eterni (La Lucrezia) HWV145

Corelli

La Folia for violin and string ensemble

Scarlatti

Cantata: Io son Neron, l’imperator del mondo

Satie

The Death of Socrates from Socrate

Britten

Phaedra Op. 93

About this concert

Artistic responses to the ancient world, to its great myths and tragedies, provide the serious substance of this boldly conceived Bostridge Project recital.

The concert opens with Handel’s 20-minute chamber cantata, O numi eterni, a visceral evocation of the rape and suicide of Lucretia.

Alessandro Scarlatti’s cantata deals with the corrosive nature of absolute power and its malign hold on Rome’s infamous arsonist and emperor, Nero.

The concert closes with Britten’s late masterwork, Phaedra, a ‘dramatic cantata’ written for Janet Baker and explores the cataclysmic, revenge-capped world of O numi eterni.

This concert is part of the The Bostridge Project: 'Ancient and Modern' series.