Handel’s La Resurrezione for Sky Arts Presented by the KT Wong Foundation
• Performed by The English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket, with soloists Lucy Crowe, Danielle de Niese, Lawrence Zazzo, Hugo Hymas and Brindley Sherratt
• Presented by Danielle de Niese
• Was broadcast on SKY ARTS in May 2021
SKY ARTS and the KT Wong Foundation present a brand-new production of Handel’s rarely performed sacred oratorio – La Resurrezione.
La Resurrezione, composed by Handel in his mid-twenties, and first performed on Easter Sunday in 1708, marked the climax of Handel’s time in Rome. The work details the events between and during Good Friday and Easter Sunday. In La Resurrezione, we can already see Handel’s mastery of musical technique in the arias and ensembles as he gives dramatic colour to the different characters in the story.
Presented and sponsored by the KT Wong Foundation, La Resurrezione is filmed at St John Smith’s Square, London, and stars The English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket, with soloists Lawrence Zazzo, Danielle de Niese, Lucy Crowe, Hugo Hymas and Brindley Sherratt. It was broadcast on SKY ARTS and subsequently made available to stream worldwide across associated channels. Sky Arts is now free for everyone to watch on Freeview Channel 11.
Lady Linda Wong Davies, Founder of the KT Wong Foundation says: ‘I am thrilled to be able to present this new production of one of Handel’s most original works at a time when its message of a new beginning could not be more relevant for people around the world. The meaning of a new beginning, a rebirth, resonates so much with how I feel about the state of the arts today. I wanted to create an opportunity for much needed work for freelance musicians during these difficult Covid times. We are extremely grateful to SKY ARTS for giving us this platform for this broadcast and we hope you will enjoy this inspiring and poignant performance.’
Commissioned by the powerful Marchese Ruspoli, the work premiered at his magnificent Palazzo Ruspoli with Handel himself conducting from the harpsichord and the great Arcangelo Corelli leading the orchestra on violin. Handel’s melodic inventiveness and firm direction in its harmonic style are features that will ultimately become important in his English oratorios like the Messiah.
Echoing the work’s theme of renewal, the performance will be broadcast at a time when the UK will start to feel the burden of the COVID-19 crisis lifted and the sense of the new life and personal resurrection that awaits.
The KT Wong Foundation aims to foster a mutual understanding between China and the rest of the world through the cultivation and production of innovative cross-cultural collaborations across the arts and education.
