Belshazzar Tour Concert

When Georg Friedrich Händel first came to London in 1710, he undertook to impress the local audience with fashionable Italian opera. That went well for about two decades, but then the English audience grew weary of the many arias in a foreign language and craved variety. At that, Händel – quite a good businessman – adapted to the public’s new wishes within a short period of time and from 1732 onward turned to the English oratorio. With this form he was entering completely new territory: though he took the tradition of the Italian oratorio as the basis, he linked it with the English language and had the works performed in a concert hall rather than a church. Händel captured the spirit of the age with this new type of oratorio; he provided high points in London’s concert life every year with his new compositions and revivals.

The oratorio Belshazzar was premiered in March 1745. The story comes from the Old Testament Book of Daniel and the texts of the ancient historians Herodotus and Xenophon, and takes place in the time of Babylonian exile in the 6th century before Christ. Belshazzar – the son of the Babylonian queen Nitocris – is depicted as a power-hungry despot who becomes haughty in his fantasies of omnipotence and cannot be held back, even by his mother. The dramatic story ends with his defeat, at the same time signifying the liberation of the Jews. Händel set this exciting story to drastic, deeply affecting music in which the choir frequently assumes the role of the people. The audience experiences not only the presentation of a historic episode: Händel’s magnificent music is of such forcefulness and intransigence that associations with dictators of the present day will emerge virtually inevitably. Principal conductor Justin Doyle will present himself here as a leading Händel expert once again, together with the RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

In cooperation with the Konzerthaus Berlin.