Handel Siroe, Re di Persia

 Day 25

Handel Siroe, Re di Persia

Solists

Cappella Coloniensis

Andrews Spering 

I came fairly late to Handel Opera. I remember writing an essay on Handel and opera at university but that was a bit of a abstract exercise - I'd never seen one of his operas on stage and the only recording I had heard anything of was the old New York City opera performance of Giulio Cesare with ponderous tempos and the title role sung an octave too low by a bass.

Two things changed all that. The first was attending a performance of Tamerlano in Leeds, which just happened to be on while I was staying there for work. The second was listening to a recording of Va Tacito from Giulio Cesare included on a sampler CD which came with a magazine. Hearing it at the right pitch and with the right articulation transformed the music, and I began to look at Handel in a new way.

Since then I've got to know quite a fair number of the operas through seeing them on stage and listening to recordings. There is no doubt that the historically informed performance movement has had a huge impact on Handel and the operas are no longer seen as museum pieces but real dramas that can communicate directly with modern audiences. Indeed two of the most memorable evenings I have had in the opera house were seeing the ENO productions of Partenope and Agrippina.

Siroe is one of the least known of the Handel operas.  None of the Handel recital discs in my collection have any extracts from it and as far as I know I had never heard a note of it before. It has the usual impossible complicated plot involving disguise and mistaken identity and it would take far to long to summarise what takes place. But when listening at home none of that really matters. You can sit back and enjoy a constant stream of musical invention. I don't think that there was a dud aria anywhere and some of the music was exceptional - particularly the scene in the prison in Act 3 where Handel writes in the highly unusual key for the time of B flat minor.

Siroe is quite a small scale work - is uses only 6 singers and an orchestra of strings, 2 oboes and continuo - though I noticed that in this performance the conductor added some recorders in Act 3. Perhaps there is no real showstopper in this opera, or one of the those moments of introspection when time just stands still. But all in all it was still a really positive experience to make the opera's acquaintance.

Sometimes I think that Handel is the greatest composer of all time. As a student I would have found that an absurd thing for anybody to say but as I get older the more I appreciate the sheer variety, inventiveness and richness of his output. There will be more Handel to come later in this series - there are at least a couple more operas that I want to tackle before the year is out.