FULL SARRASINE Göttingen 2024 Myrsini Margariti, Samuel Mariño, Juan Sancho, Sreten Manojlović

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Sarrasine   
• Composer: Handel George Frideric aka Händel Georg Friedrich  
• Libretto: Pasticcio by George Petrou and Laurence Dale based on Sarrasine by Honoré de Balzac    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Deutsches Theater, Göttingen, Germany , Internationale Händel-Festspiele  
• Recorded: 2024
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Myrsini Margariti, Samuel Mariño, Juan Sancho, Sreten Manojlović, Florian Eppinge, Ronny Thalmeyer, Marina Lara Poltmann
• Conductor: George Petrou  
• Orchestra: Festspielorchester Göttingen  
• Chorus: Kammerchor der Universität Göttingen  
• Chorus Master: Antonius Adamske  
• Choreographer: Carmine De Amicis  
• Stage Director: Laurence Dale   
• Stage Designer: Giorgina Germanou  
• Costume Designer: Giorgina Germanou  
• Lighting Designer: John Bishop  

Information about the Recording

• Date Published: 2025  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, desubs, itsubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  In the novella “Sarrasine, ” Balzac blends two narrative threads into a parable: Madame de Rochefide is strolling with the first-person narrator at a Parisian ball. When the resident of the house appears, something bizarre happens: When Madame touches him, the old man begins to scream. She demands to know what he is all about. In a secluded room, she learns from her companion that the old man once performed in Rome as the opera singer Zambinella. The sculptor Sarrasine fell in love with her, unaware that the singer was a castrated man.

  It’s a story about the uncontrollability of love, says George Petrou, who, together with director Laurence Dale, is reviving the novella as a Handel opera. Gender reversal and sexual ambiguity on stage were completely normal in the 18th century: sopranos embodied male title roles, and both protagonists and protagonists were portrayed by castrati. With their luminous, brilliant voices, they were predestined for heroic roles and lovers and were practically idolized by the audience.

  Petrou has selected arias that Handel had rejected when composing the opera. Not because they were of inferior quality, says the artistic director, but because they were masterpieces that Handel rejected for dramaturgical reasons. Petrou has collected them for years and has now rearranged them for Balzac’s story. He is creating a 21st-century musical theater, with a text published in 1830 and shockingly good music from the 18th century. Balzac would have been enthusiastic about the narrative style of “all-oneness.”

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