30th May to 1st June 2022, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Händel-Haus, Kammermusiksaal
Orlando and the History of Handel’s Operas in the 20th and 21st Centuries
With the City of Halle Handel festival of the year 1922, the foundation stone was laid for a tradition of festivals in the city of Handel’s birth. Handel’s opera Orlando launched the Handel revival in Halle, which over the decades has developed into a genuine “Handel boom”: today, Handel is the most-performed opera composer between Monteverdi and Mozart, and the history of the stage performances of his operas reflects, more than those of any other composer, the transformations of Baroque opera in the 20th and 21st centuries between historicisation and modernisation. The conference seeks to look beyond Halle’s endeavours to the history of Handel opera in the 20th and 21st centuries. In addition, it will examine the treatment of the Orlando material not only in other operas by Handel, but also in the works of other composers of the 17th and 18th centuries.