George Frideric Handel: Saul HWV 53
Oratorio in three parts
Text by Charles Jennens and Abraham Cowley

Elsa Benoit, soprano
Elisabeth Breuer, soprano
Berenike Tölle, soprano
Franz Vitzthum, alto
Tilman Lichdi, tenor
Andreas Wolf, bass
Martin Ellrodt, narrator
FAU-Kammerchor
L‘Orfeo Barockorchester
Julian Christoph Tölle, conductor

A firework of Baroque emotions will be unleashed when internationally acclaimed soloists join the ranks of L‘Orfeo Barockorchester and the FAU Kammerchor, conducted by Julian Tölle, to start the Festival Fränkischer Sommer 2021.

Recitation instead of recitative!
Martin Ellrodt grippingly tells a timeless story about power, betrayal, love, delusions of grandeur, but also of hope: Saul, one of the tragic figures from the Old Testament, is perpetrator and victim at the same time. He is Israel’s first king and by insisting on his power he neglects the signs of the times: he finds himself hopelessly entangled in intrigues of murderous jealousy, his own fear of God, feelings of guilt and issues of state policies.