SAUL

In the organizer's words:

Envy and hatred rule in Saul's heart. After David's victory over the giant Goliath, King Saul feels compelled to welcome David into his house and revere him as a hero. When his son Jonathan and his daughter Michal stand by David and his daughter Merab finally declares her allegiance to the universally acclaimed hero, Saul finally decides to get David out of the way. David, however, enjoys divine protection. Instead, it is Saul whose star threatens to set. With SAUL, George Frideric Handel turned to biblical material from the Old Testament. The subject matter was highly controversial, as around twenty years before Handel's arrival in London, Parliament had offered the British crown to William III of Orange and Mary II in the course of the "Glorious Revolution" in 1689 in order to put an end to the rule of the absolutist King James II. George Frideric Handel had previously achieved one box office hit after another in London, primarily with his serious operas. Gradually, however, the public seemed to tire of Italian opera. So Handel set out in search of new approaches to musical theater. The genre of the oratorio, which he had become acquainted with during his time in Rome in 1706-1709, seemed suitable for this. And indeed, the premiere of SAUL on January 16, 1739 at London's Haymarket Theatre was a success, not least because of the gigantic choral numbers and the English language in which it was sung. The numerous musical effects with which Handel brings the story of the torn King Saul to life show that SAUL is also dramatic, stage-effective music theater. From triumphal choruses and witches' whispers to the funeral march, which is still played at state funerals around the world today. The Glyndebourne Festival's successful production, opulently and profoundly directed by Barrie Kosky, presents the Old Testament fable of envy and jealousy in London during the Georgian era, when pleasure-seeking and misery, popular amusement and humiliation coexisted. The Gürzenich Orchestra will be conducted by Rubén Dubrovsky, who has already demonstrated his flair for baroque music in Cologne with GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO and ORLANDO.