The English Concert (TEC) and Artistic Director Harry Bicket return to Carnegie Hall in October for the third season in a row, performing Handel’s Alcina as part of their ongoing series of the composer’s operas and oratorios. Starring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role of the island-inhabiting sorceress, the all-star cast of Handel’s compelling and complex opera – an instant hit when it premiered in London in 1735 – also includes mezzo-soprano Alice Coote as the heroic knight Ruggiero, soprano Anna Christy as Alcina’s sister Morgana, mezzo-soprano Christine Rice as Ruggiero’s fiancée Bradamante, tenor Ben Johnson as Morgana’s lover Oronte, bass Wojtek Gierlach as Ruggiero’s former mentor Melisso, and soprano Anna Devin as the young boy Oberto, searching for his father who was turned into a bush by Alcina. The performance will take place on Sunday, October 26, at 2:00 pm.

Prior to bringing Alcina to Carnegie, the musicians will tour the opera to other musical capitals throughout Europe, including the Barbican in London (October 10); Palacio de Congresos Y Auditorio de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain (October 12); Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid (October 14); Theater an der Wien in Vienna (October 17); and Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris (October 20).

Handel’s spectacular and demanding writing in Alcina requires star vocal power and Joyce DiDonato, who makes her English Concert debut with these performances, fits the bill like no other mezzo performing today. Gramophone magazine described her recording of the opera (Archiv) as “The Alcina we’ve been waiting for … a complex, feminine creature, vain, and vindictive.”

DiDonato’s co-star, Alice Coote, has collaborated frequently with Harry Bicket in the world’s most renowned opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera (Giulio Cesare) and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Orlando). She joined Bicket and The English Concert on the stage of Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 2010, and London’s Wigmore Hall in 2012. Most recently, Coote, Bicket and TEC have released “an outstanding recording” of Handel Arias (Hyperion) which “have rarely sounded as richly burnished as in Alice Coote's hands,” according to Sinfini.com, with Bicket and The English Concert providing “evocative foil to the vocal drama.”

Bicket and The English Concert inaugurated their ongoing series of annual Handel opera and oratorio presentations at Carnegie Hall in 2013, with a “magnificently rendered” Radamisto (The New York Times), in which “the splendid 25-member ensemble, with Mr. Bicket leading from the harpsichord, brought pungent clarity and rhythmic swing to this 1720 score” (The Wall Street Journal). Of last season’s Theodora, “You certainly couldn’t have asked for a more inspired performance,” according to The New York Times. “The English Concert has never sounded so good,” said Seen and Heard International, concluding “It was flawless.”

The English Concert was founded in 1973 by Trevor Pinnock and is among the world’s finest and most recorded chamber orchestras. The orchestra ushered in a new era in 2007 with the appointment of Harry Bicket, whose outstanding empathy for the human voice has resulted in numerous critically acclaimed collaborations with some of today’s most in-demand vocal artists.

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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, 917 907 2785, melanne@musiccointernational.com

For further information about The English Concert and Harry Bicket, please visit http://www.englishconcert.co.uk

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION?
Handel Alcina
Sunday, October 26, 2014 – 2:00 pm (pre-concert talk at 1:00 pm)
Carnegie Hall
57th Street and Seventh Avenue
New York, New York 10019

Joyce DiDonato mezzo-soprano (Alcina)
Alice Coote mezzo-soprano (Ruggiero)
Anna Christy soprano (Morgana)
Christine Rice mezzo-soprano (Bradamante)
Ben Johnson tenor (Oronte)
Wojtek Gierlach bass (Melisso)
Anna Devin soprano (Oberto)

The English Concert?
Harry Bicket artistic director and conductor

http://www.carnegiehall.org