a cura di Biancamaria Brumana
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Saul, HWV 53 (1739)
Oratorio in tre atti
Atto 1
– SCENA 1 (nn. 1 – 5)
1. Coro: How excellent Thy name, o Lord
2. Aria (soprano): An infant rais’d by thy command
3. Trio: Along the monster atheist strode
4. Coro: The youth inspir’d by Thee, oh Lord
5. Coro: How excellent thy name, oh Lord
– SCENA 2 (n. 11)
6. Aria (Merab): What abject thoughts a prince can have
– SCENA 2 (nn. 18-21)
7. Aria (Michal): See, with what a scornful air
8. Aria (Michal): Ah, lovely youth!
9. Sinfonia
10. Recitativo (Michal): Already see the daughters of the land
– SCENA 3 (nn. 22-24)
11. Coro di donne: Welcome, welcome, mighty king!
12. Recitativo accompagnato (Saul): What do I hear? – am I then sunk so low
13. Coro: David hi sten thousands slew
– SCENA 5 (nn. 31-33)
14. Recitativo (Abner): Rack’d with infernal pains, ev’n now the king comes forth
15. Aria (David): Oh Lord, whose mercies numberless
16. Sinfonia
Atto 3
– SCENA 2 (nn. 71-72)
17. Recitativo (Witch, Saul): With me what would’st thou
18. Aria (Witch): Infernal spirits, by whose pow’r
– SCENA 3 (n. 73)
19. Recitativo accompagnato (Samuel, Saul): Why hast thou forc’d me from the realms of peace
– SCENA 4 (n. 77)
20 Dead March
– SCENA 5 (n. 78)
21. Coro: Mourn, Israel, mourn, thy beauty lost
Michal (soprano) – Rosemary Joshua
Merab (soprano) – Emma Bell
David (controtenore) – Lawrence Zazzo
Jonathan (tenore) – Jeremy Ovenden
Sommo sacerdote/Strega di Endor (tenore) – Michael Slattery
Amalekite/Abner (tenore) – Finnur Bjarnason
Doeg/Fantasma di Samuel (baritono) – Henry Waddington
Saul (basso) – Gidon Saks
RIAS Kammerchor
Concerto Köln
René Jacobs, direttore