Ruth Leon recommends… Cleopatra – Carolyn Sampson and La Folia Barockorchester

Cleopatra – Carolyn Sampson and La Folia Barockorchester

Click here to watch
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As a special treat for the festive season Wigmore Hall is rewinding back to the opening concert of the 2022/23 Season – and making it available to watch on-demand. 
The celebrated Egyptian Queen is the subject of this diverse selection of operatic extracts, delivered by an exceptional young British soprano, Carolyn Sampson backed by the Dresden-based orchestra La Folia Barockorchester.

Since the cataclysmic event of Covid, we have become accustomed to seeing understudies perform on our theatre and concert stages because  of last-minute illness. With an ensemble performance such as this, when one performer tests positive, the entire concert has to be cancelled or a last-minute substitute found. That’s particularly difficult with a complex and varied programme where the substitute performer needs to have the entire selection of songs and music already under their belt as there is often no time for rehearsal.

 In this beautiful and diverse concert, there were no fewer than three ‘understudies’ among the performers. Not only did the previously announced soprano Regula Mühlemann become indisposed shortly before the concert but two of the violinists, including the director, Robin Peter Muller, also couldn’t perform. Despite all this turmoil, violinist Zsuzsanna Czentnár seamlessly stepped in as the director and Rodolfo Richter joined the violin section. So polished is this performance from beginning to end that, unless you knew all this, you couldn’t possibly guess what had happened.

You can watch for free but I always pay something to Wigmore Hall for their free concerts so that the artists and the Hall are rewarded for putting on these lovely concerts for our pleasure.
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Here’s the programme:
Carl Heinrich Graun (c.1703-1759)
Cleopatra e Cesare
Sinfonia

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Giulio Cesare in Egitto HWV17
‘Da tempeste il legno infranto’

Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690)

Antioco il grande
‘Se tu sarai felice’

George Frideric Handel
Giulio Cesare in Egitto HWV17
Overture

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra
‘Antonio, e qual destino … Vò goder senza contrasto’

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Concerto in G minor for strings RV156
I. Allegro
Il Tigrane RV740
‘Squarciami pure il seno’

Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783)
Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra
Sinfonia
‘Lascia, Antonio, deh lascia’
‘Quel candido armellino’

Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762)
Concerto grosso in D minor after Corelli’s ‘La Follia’ Op. 5 No. 12

George Frideric Handel
Giulio Cesare in Egitto HWV17
‘Che sento? Oh Dio! … Se pietà di me non senti’

Johann Adolf Hasse
Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra
‘Morte col fiero aspetto’

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