Handel's Belshazzar

Handel's Belshazzar is one of his finest, dramatically coherent oratorios yet it does not get as many outings as it deserves. There is a chance to catch it on Saturday March 25, 2017 at St James's Church, Piccadilly, London when Richard Bannan conducts the Petros Singers and a strong cast including Rupert Charlesworth as Belshazzar, Emma Kirkby as Nitocris, James Hall as Cyrus, Giles Underwood as Gobrias and David Allsopp as Daniel.

Written in 1744, Belshazzar features a strong tenor role (the title role) for Handel's favourite tenor, John Beard, for whom he wrote the title role in Samson. The libretto by Charles Jennens was one of the best that Handel set, Jennens had a gift for dramatic structure which escaped some of Handel's other collaborators. The text so enthused Handel that his original draft of Act One ran to something like double its final length.

Full details from the Petros Singers website.