This recording of Handel's La Resurrezione was made at Sage Gateshead, Newcastle, UK, in April 2021.
Composition History
Handel never performed La Resurrezione again after its premiere, as its intensely Roman Catholic perspective was not suitable for adaptation to theatre concerts in Protestant London.
Historical Context
The first performance of La Resurrezione in 1708 featured soprano Margherita Durastanti as Mary Magdalene, despite Pope Clement XI's edict forbidding women from public musical performances.
Compositional Technique
Handel's La Resurrezione features an extravagant instrumentation including recorders, flute, oboes, bassoon, trumpets, solo violin, viola da gamba, strings, and theorbo, often used in unusual combinations.
Compositional Technique
Handel's La Resurrezione is unusual for an oratorio in that it begins with a verbal altercation between an Angel and Lucifer, a striking theatrical device Handel may have borrowed from Stradella's Christmas oratorio.
Composition History
Handel's La Resurrezione was premiered on Easter Sunday, April 8, 1708, as the grand finale of a Lenten oratorio concert series hosted by his patron, Francesco Maria Ruspoli, in Rome.
Interpretation
The English Concert's recording of La Resurrezione uses a reconstructed trombone part by Alfonso Leal del Ojo, as no original part survived, following late 17th-century practice.
