Handel's Roman Cantatas

ABOUT

Following award-winning performances of our concert Handel at Home in 2022/23, featuring players of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra and sopranos Lynelle Kenned and Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi, the same baroque dream team now brings you: Handel's Roman Cantatas!

During the 17th century - in parallel with the development of the new forms of opera and oratorio - a form of secular vocal composition developed which came to be called the cantata. Unlike opera and oratorio, the Italian cantata in the 17th century was usually intended for domestic performance. By the beginning of the 18th century, cantatas had developed into self-contained dramatic scenes - almost mini-operas. Especially in Rome, in times when the church banned opera performances, these cantatas served as a substitute dramatic outlet for composers and singers.

The young GF Handel (1685–1759), during his years of study in Italy in the first decade of the 18th century, composed a great number of Italian cantatas. In Handel's Roman Cantatas, Lynelle, Hlengiwe and a chamber ensemble of CTBO players present a selection of these dramatic and expressive gems.

With: Lynelle Kenned (soprano), Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi (soprano), Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin), Rosamund Ender (baroque cello and viola da gamba), Dale de Windt (chamber organ) and Erik Dippenaar (harpsichord/Director).

Photo credit: Klein Karoo Klassique / Hans van der Veen

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