Prom 65: Alice Coote sings Handel
Live from the Royal Albert Hall in London, Martin Handley presents a Prom in which mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and the English Concert under Harry Bicket perform Handel arias.
Live at the Â鶹Éç Proms: Alice Coote and The English Concert with Harry Bicket in a programme of Handel arias.
Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Martin Handley
Handel - Arias from operas, oratorios and cantatas
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
The English Concert
Harry Bicket (conductor)
Susannah Waters (stage director)
A programme of arias from Handel's operas, oratorios and cantatas - including Giulio Cesare, Semele, Hercules, Theodora, Messiah and Tra le fiamme - as a window on 'being both': the dilemmas and turbulent emotions experienced by both male and female characters
Few composers express emotion as directly or with greater psychological truth than Handel. British mezzo-soprano Alice Coote explores the full gamut of these emotions in a Late Night Prom featuring some of Handel's greatest arias. Taking on both male and female roles, she delves into what it means to be a man, or a woman, in Handel's world of sorceresses and knights, kings and queens. She is joined in her theatrical journey by regular collaborators and period-performance specialists Harry Bicket and The English Concert.
This Prom will be repeated on Wednesday 9th September at 2pm.
Last on
Music Played
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George Frideric Handel
Alcina-Sta nell`Ircana
Orchestra: The English Concert. Conductor: Harry Bicket. -
George Frideric Handel
Hercules - Resign thy club
Orchestra: The English Concert. Conductor: Harry Bicket. -
George Frideric Handel
Ariodante - Scherza Infida
Orchestra: The English Concert. Conductor: Harry Bicket. -
George Frideric Handel
Theodora - O that I on wings could rise
Performer: Alice Coote. Orchestra: The English Concert. -
George Frideric Handel
Ariodante - Ballet Music
Orchestra: The English Concert. -
George Frideric Handel
Messiah - He Was Despised
Orchestra: The English Concert. Conductor: Harry Bicket. -
George Frideric Handel
Semele - Myself I shall adore
Orchestra: The English Concert. Conductor: Harry Bicket. -
Paul Horn
Meditation Psalm 2
- Inside the Great Pyramid.
- Kuckuck.
- 2.
-
George Frideric Handel
Julius Caesar - Se pieta
Orchestra: The English Concert. Conductor: Harry Bicket. -
George Frideric Handel
Ariodante - Dope Notte
Orchestra: The English Concert. Conductor: Harry Bicket. -
George Frideric Handel
Hercules - There in Myrtle Shades
Orchestra: The English Concert. Conductor: Harry Bicket. -
Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree
The Fish House [extract]
- Captiva.
- 12k.
- 1.
-
Paul Horn
Meditation Psalm 2
- Inside the Great Pyramid.
- Kuckuck.
- 2.
-
Ryley Walker
Fonda
- all kinds of you.
- Tompkins Square.
- 7.
-
Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree
The Fish House [extract]
- Captiva.
- 12k.
- 1.
Handel - Alcina
Sta nell'ircana (Ruggiero)
Ìý
Sta nell’Ircana pietrosa tana
Tigre sdegnosa, e incerta pende,
Se parte, o attende
Il cacciator.
Dal teso strale
Guardarsi vuole;
Ma poi la prole
Lascia in periglio.
Freme e l’assale
Desio di sangue,
Pietà del figlio;
Poi vince amor.
Dal teso strale, etc.
Anonymous, based on ‘Orlando furioso’
by Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533)
Ìý
In her rocky Hyrcanian den
an angry tigress lurks, uncertain
whether to flee or wait
for the hunter.
From the ready-strung arrow
she would protect herself,
but doing so would leave
her cub in danger.
She quivers, assailed
by thirst for blood
and fear for the cub;
love wins.
From the ready-strung arrow, etc.
Translation © Avril Bardoni
Ìý
Handel - Hercules
Resign thy club (Dejanira)
Ìý
Resign thy club and lion’s spoils,
And fly from war to female toils!
For the glittering sword and shield
The spindle and the distaff wield!
Thund’ring Mars no more shall arm thee,
Venus and her whining boy
Shall all thy wanton hours employ.
Resign thy club and lion’s spoils, etc.
Thomas Broughton (1704–74),
after Sophocles (496–406 bce)
Handel - Ariodante
Scherza Infida (Ariodante)
Ìý
E vivo ancora? E senza il ferro?
Oh! Dei! Che farò?
Che mi dite? O affanni miei!
Scherza infida! In grembo al drudo,
Io tradito a morte in braccio
Per tua colpa ora men vo.
Ma a spezzar l’indegno laccio,
Ombra mesta, e spirto ignudo,
Per tua pena io tornerò.
Scherza infida! In grembo al drudo, etc.
after Antonio Salvi (1664–1724), based on ‘Orlando furioso’
by Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533)
Ìý
Ìý
Ìý
Am I still alive? And have no sword?
Oh! Gods! What shall I do?
What is your advice? Oh, what cares are mine!
Treacherous trick! In the paramour’s arms
betrayed into death’s clutches
am I by your guilt.
But in order to break the unworthy chains,
in the guise of a shade, a disembodied spirit,
I shall return to punish you.
Treacherous trick! In the paramour’s arms, etc.
Translation © Avril Bardoni
Ìý
Handel - Ariodante
Ballet music and accompanied recitative.
Ìý
Ginevra
What horror! Oh heavens!
Wretched am I …
My weeping and my grief find no peace …
Even in sleeping.
Ìý
Handel - Theodora
Oh, that I on wings could rise
Swiftly sailing through the skies,
As skims the silver dove!
That I might rest,
For ever blest,
With harmony and love.
Oh, that I on wings could rise, etc.
Thomas Morell (1703–84)
Ìý
Handel - Messiah
He was despised
Ìý
He was despised and rejected of men,
A man of sorrows, and acquainted with Grief.
Isaiah 53: 3
He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair: He hid not his face from shame and spitting.
Isaiah 50: 6
Ìý
Ìý
Handel - Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Se pieta (Cleopatra)
Ìý
Se pietà di me non senti,
Giusto, ciel, io morirò,
Tu da’ pace a’ miei tormenti,
O quest’alma spirerò.
Se pietà di me non senti, etc.
Nicola Francesco Haym (1678–1729),
after Giacomo Francesco Bussani
Ìý
Just heaven, if for me
you feel no pity, I shall die.
Grant peace to my torments,
or my soul will perish.
Just heaven, if for me, etc.
Translation © Estate of Lionel Salter
Ìý
Handel - Semele
Myself I shall adore (Semele)
Ìý
Myself I shall adore,
If I persist in gazing.
No object sure before
Was ever half so pleasing.
Myself I shall adore, etc.
William Congreve (1670–1729)
Handel - Ariodante
Dopo notte (Ariodante)
Ìý
Dopo notte atra e funesta,
Splende in ciel più vago il sole,
E di gioia empie la terra.
Mentre in orrida tempesta
Il mio legno è quasi assorto,
Giunge in porto, e’l lido afferra.
Dopo notte atra e funesta, etc.
Ìý
Ìý
After a dark and dreary night
the sun appears brighter than ever,
and fills the world with joy.
After weathering a fearful storm
that almost overwhelms my ship,
it gains the harbour and ties up by the shore.
After weathering a fearful storm, etc.
Translation © Avril Bardoni
Ìý
Handel - Hercules
There, in myrtle shades (Dejanira)
Ìý
There, in myrtle shades reclined,
By streams that through Elysium wind,
In sweetest union we shall prove
Eternity of bliss and love.
Ìý
Broadcast
- Thu 3 Sep 2015 22:15Â鶹Éç Radio 3
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