Of Love, Jealousy and Loneliness - G. F. Handel with Anna Prohaska

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Ouverture from the opera ‘Il pastor fido’ HWV 8a (1st version, 1712)

‘Vaghe perle, eletti fiori’. Aria from the opera ‘Agrippina’ HWV 11 (1707–08)

Allegro – Andante – Allegro from: ‘Water Music’. Suite No. 1 HWV 348 (1717)

‘Geloso tormento’. Aria from the opera ‘Almira, Königin von Castilien’ HWV 1 (1704)

Sarabande & Menuet I & II from: ‘Water Music’. Suite No. 3 HWV 350 (1717)

‘Il crudel m’abandona … Ah! spietato!’. Rezitativo and Aria from the opera ‘Amadigi di Gaula’ HWV 11 (1715)

Ouverture from: ‘Musick for the Royal Fireworks’ HWV 351 (1749)

Christoph Graupner (1683-1760)
‘Holdestes Lispeln der spielenden Fluten’. Aria from the opera ‘Dido, Königin von Carthago’ (1707)

George Frideric Handel
La Réjouissance & Menuet I & II from: ‘Musick for the Royal Fireworks’

Christoph Graupner
‘Der Himmel ist von Donnerkeilen schwer … Infido Cupido’. Accompagnato & aria from the opera ‘Dido, Königin von Carthago’

George Frideric Handel
Bourée from: ‘Musick for the Royal Fireworks’

‘Der Himmel wird strafen dein falsches Gemüt’. Aria from the opera ‘Almira, Königin von Castilien’

La Paix from: ‘Musick for the Royal Fireworks’

‘Ye sacred priests … Farewell, ye limpid springs and floods’. Accompagnato & aria from the oratorio ‘Jephtha’ HWV 70 (1751)

Adagio of the ouverture from: ‘Musick for the Royal Fireworks’

Anna Prohaska, soprano
L’Orfeo Barockorchester
Erich Traxler, conductor

The L’Orfeo Barockorchester, conducted by Erich Traxler, is presenting two of George Frideric Handel’s most opulent and famous orchestral works: His ‘Water Music’ was composed as the musical accompaniment to a pleasure cruise by King George I on the Thames, whilst the ‘Musick for the Royal Fireworks’ was performed – as the name suggests – as festive music to accompany a fireworks display with which King George II celebrated the Peace of Aachen and thus the end of the War of the Austrian Succession. Against this backdrop of royal splendour, soprano Anna Prohaska – renowned for her expressive interpretations and her great dramatic talent – presents a refined selection of well-known and lesser-known arias by Handel and Christoph Graupner: From the sensual ‘Vaghe perle, eletti fiori’ from ‘Agrippina’ to dazzling numbers such as ‘Geloso tormento’ from Handel’s first opera, ‘Almira, Königin von Castilien’.