La Resurrezione, a true work of genius by the twenty-three year old Handel, was performed for the first time on 8 April 1708 in the Marchese Ruspoli’s palace in Rome. Prominent singers, such as Margherita Durastanti in the role of Maria Magdalena, took part in the performance, with the orchestra led by Arcangelo Corelli. The first performance using the newly-published volume in the Halle Handel Edition (edited by Terence Best) also has a star-studded cast. Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts his Concentus Musicus and an illustrious team of singers (including Christine Schäfer and Toby Spence) in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein on 12 and 13 March, then on 10 April in Lucerne.

Zurich Opera presents a masterpiece of the comic opera repertoire in the New Year, Gioachino Rossini’s Le comte Ory. The role of the Countess will be sung by star mezzo Cecilia Bartoli. In this new production (first performance: 23 January 2011) the recently-published critical edition by the French musicologist Damien Colas will be heard for the first time. In it, the original version of this opera has been reconstructed with the help of the original performance material. As a result, several numbers differ considerably from the version currently in use and enable us to recognize the references to Il viaggio a Reims more clearly than previously.  A milestone in our understanding of Rossini.

George Frideric Handel composed the large-scale secular serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo for a ducal wedding in Naples in July 1708. The libretto is based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses and is about the love between the sea nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis, who is destroyed by the Cyclops Polyphemus. This early masterwork will be presented for the first time using the Halle Handel Edition in a performance given by René Jacobs and the Akademie für Alte Musik in the Schiller-Theater, Berlin on 5 and 6 February.

The Hannover-Herrenhausen Arts Festival is offering a real operatic rarity on 26 June with Francesco Cavalli’s dramma per musica  L'Artemisia, first performed in Venice in 1657. For the first performance in modern times, Cavalli specialist Hendrik Schulze has prepared a critical edition which Claudio Cavina and his ensemble La Venexiana use in their interpretation. A further performance is planned for 24 July at the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, which will be followed by a CD recording. The full score and performance material of L’Artemisia are published by Bärenreiter in their new series “Opere di Francesco Cavalli”.

Leoš Janáček’s symphonic fragment Dunaj (The Danube) dates from the period of the composition of “Katya Kabanova”. The composer was not concerned with a musical-picturesque description of a river landscape, but with the mythical link between women’s destinies and water.

Rossini composed only a few works in the last years of his life. These include the Petite Messe Solennelle which was performed privately. This chamber music version with two pianos and harmonium exists in two versions. These are now being presented for the first time in a single edition.

During Handel’s lifetime Ezio only received five performances, yet the work, which deals freely with an episode from the end of the Roman Empire, deserves to be rediscovered. This is now possible, using the Halle Handel Edition as a secure scholarly basis.