Thursday 21 March 2013

The Rival Queens return

Faustina Bordoni
Faustina Bordoni
Francesca Cuzzoni
Francesca Cuzzoni
Classical Opera Company's delightful Handel and the Rival Queens returns on March 26 at St. George's Bristol, with sopranos Eleanor Dennis and Mhairi Lawson, plus the actor Christopher Benjamin with Christian Curnyn conducting the Early Opera Company. The programme explores Handel's relationships with the two sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni at a time when he was writing operas like Rodelinda, Cleopatra and Alessandro, with fireworks both on and off the stage. The programme combines arias and duets, with lively readings from contemporary diaries, newspapers and other sources. I saw their performance at last year's Lufthansa Festival in London and can highly recommend it (see my review). If you can't make it to Bristol, then fear not, the programme is live of BBC Radio 3 as part of their Baroque Spring. Further information from the Early Opera Company website.

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