Divamensch
Liz and I heard a concert performance of Handel's Hercules at Carnegie Hall on Mar 16, 2026. It presented by Harry Bicket and The English Concert, his period instrument chamber orchestra. They come to Carnegie Hall about once a year for a concert performance of a Handel opera or oratorio. I've heard these:
Orlando, Mar 2016
Semele, Apr 2019
Handel is a master of variety and dramatic expression within the context of the pretty rigid confines of the forms of his time. I said to Liz as we were walking out, "It's amazing that there was no shortage of impressive music in the first half but the real showstoppers were in the second half." Turns out Handel invented the 11:00 number.
The orchestra's playing is crisp and clear but still red-blooded and full of zing and bite. The chorus is a local one, The Clarion Choir. They had a rich, juicy sound, perfectly blended.
The first aria of note, "The world, when day's career is won," was sung by Hercules's wife, Dejanira. Here's Anne Sophie von Otter singing it:
There are some surprisingly modern harmonies and oddly angular moments in this aria. I felt like, early the show, Handel was throwing down the gauntlet and telling people to pay attention. This was not going to be your usual song and dance.
In our performance this role was played by mezzo Ann Hallenberg, more or less the lead character and the star of the show. Her singing was elegant and loaded with a genuine feeling for the Baroque style.
The next singer was tenor David Portillo. He started singing and wow, that's an opera singer! A bigger voice, a more forthright manner of presentation. I liked him a lot. Here he is doing an aria from Handel's Theodora:
Liz was very impressed with soprano Hilary Cronin. Gorgeous voice, effortless high notes, perfect voice for the rep. Here she is singing a Handel duet from L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed il Moderato:
I won't mention the bass in the title role because I didn't like him very much. It's mostly a logistical problem - - a low male voice will often have a hard time being heard in rapid notes, it just doesn't cut through the texture, it gets swallowed into the orchestra.
Counter tenor Alexander Chance sang beautifully, a clear creamy voice. I'd love to hear him again. I wasn't able to find him singing Handel so I guess Bach will have to do:
The most famous aria from this show is Dejanira's pseudo mad scene, "Where shall I fly?" Here's our Ann Hallenberg singing it at another gig:
She's going nutty because she gave her husband a special magic robe as a peace offering and oops, it had the wrong kind of magic. He asked his son (the tenor), in the midst of his death agonies, to carry his body up to the top of the hill and put it on a funeral pyre. The son agreed to do this but Dad, put a pin in that idea, first I have to sing a long aria. Hilarious.
A priest came back from the scene and reported that he saw Hercules's spirit rising to heaven. So Dejanira was forgiven for the magic robe mishap (#magicrobemishap) and the soprano and tenor got the green light to get married. They sang a spritely little duet - - apart from the choruses, this was the only ensemble piece in the opera, everything else was arias. See what I mean about the form being rigid. The chorus sang a warm chorus and The End.