Burlington Baroque Festival: Oratorio: Israel in Egypt George Frideric Handel

Pre-concert talk with Benjamin Pomerance at 1:15 p.m.

Co-Presented with the Lane Series at the UVM Recital Hall

The two genres that really made George Frideric Handel a rock star in 18th-century London were Opera and Oratorio. The Operas, which assured his fame, were staged theatre events on secular and classical themes. The Oratorios, presented in concert without staging, were what occupied Handel during the season of Lent, in which the performance of opera was proscribed. He wrote numerous large-scale works mainly on Biblical subjects from the Hebrew Bible (a notable exception being, of course, MESSIAH). After that most famous work, ISRAEL in EGYPT was one of the most popular works during his lifetime, presented more or less continually after writing it until his death. The work is extraordinary in that it contains an enormous number of choral movements, with relatively few arias for soloists, making it one of the most challenging and satisfying works for choruses to present, and captivating audiences to this day. It is a monumental pinnacle of the Oratorio genre, which retells the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of captivity in Pharaoh's Egypt, including the miracle of salvation at the parting of the Red Sea - the work's climax. A tour de force for both chorus and orchestra, we are delighted to be co-presenting this performance with the Lane Series.

Featured soloists are:

Myriam Leblanc, soprano (Montreal)

Nicholas Burns, alto (Vancouver) 

Ryan Matos, tenor (Burlington)

Aldeo Jean, tenor (Montreal)

Sumner Thompson, baritone (Boston)

William Kraushaar, bass (Montreal)

with the BURLINGTON BAROQUE FESTIVAL SINGERS