Sunday 27 November 2011

Handel Saul at the Barbican

Handel Saul at the Barbican  reviewed in Opera Today by Robert Hugill. "The title role is a remarkable portrait of a conflicted personality, and Handel emphasised this by reducing the character's arias and concentrating on recitative (both secco and accompanied). This means that it can be a tricky role to bring off, fatally easy to under play in a concert performance. Peter Purves brought both Handelian bravura and drama to the role, not only acting but reacting, his performance continuing when others were performing, so that Purves showed Saul’s furious reaction to the Israelites praise for David"

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