Händel’s genius remembered

Four operas in the second edition of Händel’s festival in Warsaw

Paying a tribute to the genius of Georg Friedrich Händel, the German-born composer who left a deep mark in baroque music as we know it today, the Warsaw Chamber Opera has been organizing a wonderful festival that should not be missed if you are in the Polish capital from September 28 to December 19. The Georg Friedrich Händel Festival is kicking off its second edition at Warsaw’s Royal Castle and includes operas, chamber music concerts and recitals.

The Warsaw Chamber Opera has its own ensemble of baroque instruments and has also created a festival of baroque music presenting works by various composers and a Claudio Monteverdi Festival. Last year, it came up with a Georg Friedrich Händel Festival, which was a big success.

As 2009 was named Händel Year, the Warsaw Chamber Opera’s two Händel masterpieces already in its repertoire -Rinaldo, the first of his operas to be staged in London, and Imeneo (the penultimate)- were enriched by a work from the middle period of Händel’s London operatic productions: Julius Ceasar. Now, all three operas will be staged at the Warsaw Castle during the festival, which is something that delights all opera lovers.

The second edition of the Händel Festival opens with a baroque work that needs a special attention. This is an idea of Ukrainian-born soprano Olga Pasichnyk, a soloist of the Warsaw Chamber Opera, and it is going to be the first stage performance of three Händel monodramas about three famous women from the distant past, fused into a single spectacle: La Lucrezia, Arminda abbandonata & Agrippina condotta a morire (Lucretia, Arminda abandoned and Agrippina condemned to death). Olga Pasichnyk interprets these three dramatic figures, accompanied by the dancers Michał Łabuś and Izadora Weiss, who is also director and choreographer, with stage design by Marlena Skoneczko. The chamber musicians performing the solo instrumental parts are Maria Papuzińska-Uss (first baroque violin), Agnieszka Rychlik (second baroque violin), Jakub Kościukiewicz (baroque cello), Anton Birula (theorbo and lute) and Ewa Mrowca (harpsichord). The three monodramas are interleaved with two Händel trio sonatas: Op. 5 Nos. 3 and 6.

Besides this new artistic experience, which is going to be enjoyed in seven performances throughout the festival, there will also be three concerts:

Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Music, performed by the Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense (Warsaw Chamber Opera Early Instruments Ensemble) directed by Władysław Kłosiewicz, at the Ballroom of the Royal Castle on October 1;
the same program repeated at the Warsaw Chamber Opera Theatre on December 15;
and to close the festival on December 19 at the Castle Ballroom, a concert performance of Messiah, with soloists Olga Pasichnyk, Anna Radziejewska, Sylwester Smulczyński and Jarosław Bręk, Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense and the Warsaw Chamber Opera Chorus directed by Władysław Kłosiewicz.