Belshazzar
When George Frideric Handel's era of successful operas in London was drawing to a close, he shifted the focus of his work to composing oratorios. From then on, this form was his whole passion: he used it in large format, and magnificent choirs – unlike in the opera – now moved to the center of the musical events. Handel preferred the themes for his oratorios to be taken from the Old Testament. However, the works were not performed in a church-sacred context, but instead took place in concerts as a commercial enterprise in rented theaters. Also the oratorio Belshazzar , first performed in 1741is based on Old Testament material and tells of the overthrow of the Babylonian ruler Belshazzar by the Persians. A religious dispute runs through the plot between the Babylonians, who worship many gods and turn to orgiastic rituals, and the Persians, who believe in the one God of the Old Testament. There is also a third people – the strictly religious Jews who were held captive by the Babylonians. One of the highlights of the plot is the moment when, in the middle of an intoxicating Babylonian festival, God's hand writes the words "Mene, mene Tekel" on the wall, which the Jewish seer Daniel interprets as a prophecy of doom for the blasphemous Babylonians.
The German director Sebastian Baumgarten, who recently celebrated a great success at the Zurich Opera House with Brecht/Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny , will bring Belshazzar to the stage as a visually powerful, epic-dramatic theater spectacle that is typical of him. The English Handel expert Laurence Cummings conducts the Orchestra La Scintilla. The cast of singers combines top-class and stylistically competent soloists, from our ensemble member Mauro Peter as Belshazzar to the Canadian soprano Layla Claire and the house debut of the young Polish countertenor shooting star Jakub Józef Orliński. The choir of the Zurich Opera House, divided into three peoples, can be experienced in one of the most beautiful and challenging tasks of the 2O19/2O season.
