HERCULES Moscow 2013 Ann Hallenberg, Ivon Ludlow, Lucy Crowe

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Hercules  
• Composer: Handel George Frideric aka Händel Georg Friedrich  
• Libretto: Thomas Broughton  
• Venue & Opera Company: Txchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow, Russia  
• Recorded: 2013
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Ann Hallenberg, Ivon Ludlow, Lucy Crowe, Romina Basso, Nicholas Phan, Oleg Tsybulko
• Conductor: Christopher Molds  
• Orchestra: Moscow Chamber Orchestra Musica Viva  
• Chorus: Vocal Ensemble Intrada  
• Chorus Master: Ekaterina Antonenko  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Moscow Philharmonic  
• Date Published: 2013  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• This Recording is NOT AVAILABLE from a proper commercial or public source
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Quote from Wikipedia:
Hercules (HWV 60) is a Musical Drama in three acts by George Frideric Handel, composed in July and August 1744. The English language libretto was by the Reverend Thomas Broughton, based on Sophocles’s Women of Trachis and the ninth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Performance history
Hercules was first given at the King’s Theatre in London on 5 January 1745 in concert style. There were only two performances in the original run. The role of Lichas was written first as a small one for tenor, but it was greatly expanded before the premiere to provide Susanna Cibber with six airs. She was too ill to sing on the first night, and the music was either omitted or redistributed on that occasion. She sang in the second performance on 12 January. The music for the chorus “Wanton God” and the air “Cease, ruler of the day” was never given in this opera: the latter was adapted for the final chorus of Theodora. The work was a total failure and caused Handel to suspend his season. Hercules obtained three further hearings, two in 1749 and one in 1752, for which the role of Lichas was eliminated, and much of the other music was also cut.

Hercules was originally performed in the theatre as an oratorio without stage action. It is argued that this contributed to its later neglect as it did not make the transition into the church and the concert hall successfully. When fully staged it was reappraised and acclaimed by Romain Rolland, Henry Prunières, Paul Henry Lang and others as one of the supreme masterpieces of its age.[3] The first modern performance was in Münster in 1925. Hercules is sometimes given a full opera staging, for example, in a Peter Sellars production at the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2011.