Vocal Univers. Lyrical Gala II

Artists

Magdalena Kožená, mezzo-soprano

La Cetra Basel

Andrea Marcon, conductor and harpsichord

Program

Alcina: Bewitched Love – Enchanted Love

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

From Alcina, HWV 34 (1735):

Ouverture – Musette – Menuet

Di’ cor mio, quanto t’amai

Si, son quella, non più bella

Ah! mio cor! Schernito sei!

Ah! Ruggiero crudel, tu non me amasti!

Ombre pallide

Ma quando tornerai

Mi restano le lagrime

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) / Francesco Geminiani (1684-1762)

Concerto grosso in D minor ‘La Follia’, Op. 5 No. 12 (1700)

Alessandro Marcello (1673-1747)

Andante Larghetto from Concerto grosso No. 3 in B minor, SF 937 «La Cetra» (publ. 1738)

Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768)

Ouverture VI in G minor

Of Loves and Enchantments

Handel’s Alcina was premiered at London’s Covent Garden Theatre in 1735, at a time when the competition between his own company and that of the so-called Opera of the Nobility was straining his financial resources and his good mood. And the composer did his best to achieve a major work in the lyrical art of his time, by creating one of the most powerful and moving female portraits of his entire career, that of Alcina. The sorceress in Ariosto’s Orlando furioso reaches an imposing dramatic stature in Handel’s opera. Accompanied by the ensemble La Cetra Basel, under the direction of Andrea Marcon, with whom she has been collaborating for years, and against the background of instrumental pieces that enhance the vocal ones, Magdalena Kožená reviews all the solo acts of the character in a challenge that will certainly be absolutely magical.