Handel – Belshazzar
Clayton; Joshua; Hulcup; Davies; Lemalu; Les Arts Florissants; William Christie
Les Arts Florissants Editions 001
When Handel came to London in 1710, he was primarily a composer of Italian operas. His first oratorio, Esther, dates from 1732 but it was from the late 1730s on, when Italian opera was losing its popularity in London, that English oratorio became central to his work. Belshazzar was composed in 1744. The libretto is largely based on the Book of Daniel and its central event is the writing on the wall which Belshazzar, the Babylonian King, does not understand and which only Daniel, the Jewish captive, can interpret.
In 1745 major changes had to be made because the contralto, Susannah Cibber, who was to sing Daniel, was not available. On these CDs William Christie gives us essentially the work as it stood before that emergency surgery, but he also includes some material that was cut before the first performance (cut no doubt because Handel was worried about the work’s length) as well as some numbers that Handel added or changed for the 1751 revival. The performance is magnificent: it is superbly paced and the soloists, the orchestra and the chorus are all very fine. I was especially taken with the soprano Rosemary Joshua as Nitocris, Belshazzar’s mother, and the countertenor Iestyn Davies as Daniel.
Over the years Christie and Les Arts Florissants have given us many fine recordings, but this is the first set of CDs issued by the orchestra itself. A great beginning!
Concert notes: While there are dozens of performances of Messiah in Toronto each year, chances to hear Handel’s other oratorios are infrequent. But we are in luck this year: Tafelmusik is presenting Saul (February 21 to 23) and the Canadian Opera Company is giving us a staged version of Hercules, directed by Peter Sellars (from March 5).
