René Jacobs conducts starry cast in Handel’s ‘Belshazzar’ on DVD and Blu-ray for Harmonia Mundi
Harmonia Mundi is to release
Handel’s Belshazzar with René Jacobs conducting the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin on DVD and Blu-ray.
The recording features Christoph Nel’s production for the Staatsoper Unter
Der Linden Berlin, with a cast that includes Rosemary Joshua, Christina Sampson (sopranos), Kristina Hammarström, Lucy Taylor (mezzo-sopranos), Bejun Mehta, Andrew Radley, Richard Wilberforce (countertenors), Vernon Kirk, Kenneth Tarver (tenors), and Neal Davies and Andrew Davies (basses).
Composed in 1745, Belshazzar stands with Messiah as one of
Handel’s finest oratorios. Based on a libretto by Charles Jennens, the story, from the Book of Daniel, recounts the fall of Babylon at the hands of the Persian prince Cyrus who brought Belshazzar’s tyrannical reign to a violent end – a story with all too obvious relevance in our own time.
