17.03.2024

JEREMY OVENDEN with Handel's Jephtha in Oslo, Namur and Halle

With his oratorio Jephta, Handel, in top form, created a fascinating late work. It required relatively large amounts of time and energy to complete, owing to his progressive blindness. But complete it he did in 1751, a year before losing his sight completely. The biblical basis for the judge Jephta, who unsuspectingly committed himself to murdering his daughter with a divine oath, gets a happy ending from Handel’s librettist, Thomas Morell. With this his last major work, Handel gave the English-language oratorio in its rightful place in music history, a genre which he had himself created.

Jeremy Ovenden, a much sought-after interpreter and specialist for Handel's operas and oratorios, who has attracted attention not least through his participation in Tamerlano at the Brussels opera house La Monnaie and the Amsterdam Dutch National Opera as well as his interpretation of Handel's Semele at the Göttingen International Handel Festival, will take on the title role under the direction of Christophe Rousset and alongside a squad of other hand-picked soloists.

Mozart, on the other hand, will once again take centre stage for Jeremy Ovenden and Les Talens Lyriques in June, when two concert performances of Così fan tutte are on the programme as part of this year's Mozart Festival, where Jeremy Ovenden will be heard as Ferrando. Prior to this, the British tenor will make a guest appearance in the title role of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito in Milo Rau's production at the Vienna Festival, with which he also enjoyed great personal success at the Flemish Opera in Antwerp and Ghent last autumn.

Besetzung

Jeremy Ovenden, Jephtha
Sophie Harmsen, Storgé
Deborah Cachet, Iphis
Tim Mead, Hamor
Edwin Crossley-Mercer, Zebul
Soprano from the Choeur de Namur, Angel

Les Talens Lyriques
Chœur de Chambre de Namur
Christophe Rousset, Musical Director
Thibaut Lenaerts, Rehearsal Choir