Hungary’s leading conductor of early music, György Vashegyi, is turning to a third opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, the tragédie “Dardanus” in the late version from 1744. This follows on from performances of “Naïs” and “Les Indes Galantes”. In association with the “Opera Omnia Rameau”, the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and MÜPA Budapest, it will be performed on 8 March in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall with renowned vocal soloists, the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra. A CD recording is planned. The Complete Edition project, energetically promoted by the Société Jean-Philippe Rameau Paris and Bärenreiter-Verlag, is receiving increasing attention also in America. A staged production of “Dardanus” is planned for 26 June 2020 as part of the New York “12 Nights Festival” in St. Paul’s Chapel, directed by John La Bouchardière and conducted by Avi Stein, with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra.

The first concert performance of the fragmentary surviving early version of the opera „Sosarme“ planned for 1 April 2020 at the London Handel Festival has unfortunately had to be cancelled. Handel fans are now hoping to hear „Fernando“ on 5 June at Handel Festival Halle in the Freylinghausen Saal of the Francke Foundation with soloists and the orchestra of Opera Settecento conducted by Leo Durate. Performance material specially created for this occasion from the Halle Handel Edition will be used for the first time.

Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini has been commissioned by the Jena Philharmonic and partner orchestras to compose a short orchestral work relating to Mahler’s music and intellectual world to complement each of Mahler’s ten symphonies. “Incantesimo”, the fourth piece in the cycle, is an orchestral song. A setting of Joseph von Eichendorff’s poem “Abendständchen”, it precedes Mahler’s 4th Symphony and receives its premiere on 24.4.2020 in Siegen with Sarah Aristidou (soprano) and the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, conducted by Nabil Shehata. Voice and poetry are also at the centre of Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini’s next premiere: he has composed songs to texts by Nora Gomringer for the soprano Sarah Maria Sun who premieres these with Jan Philip Schulze on 6 June at the “LIEDBasel” 2020 Festival. (photo: Janis Huber)