Tamerlano 2022
CHOC to stage Handel’s Tamerlano
In Handel’s most intensely psychological opera, paternal heartache, royal status, thwarted love and frustrated passion collide to devastating effect. The fallen Emperor Bajazet cannot come to terms with his humiliation – nor can he let his daughter Asteria fall into the hands of his presumptuous victor, Tamerlano. Asteria loves Andronico, but his love for her is paralysed by his duty to his ally, her father’s conqueror. Familial love clashing with proud hatred of an enemy has tragic consequences. Can resolution ever be found?
An opera that probes dilemmas of loyalty, identity, family and yearning is especially apt for our own continued state of uncertainty. Handel’s masterly score absorbs us, with music of spellbinding beauty and expressiveness, in the drama’s continually tightening tension of conflicting demands. And as so often in Handel, the oppressed and seemingly slighted women emerge as the true heroes of the action.
In the weeks before the first performance, Cambridge Handel Opera offers a second series of Handel’s Green Room, three online discussions of aspects of the opera and the production.
Performances
5, 6, 8, 9 April 2022 at 7:00pm
Ticket prices: £42, £35
Concessions: Full-time student standby tickets: £10
Booking opens to Friends of CHOC January 2022, and to the general public in February 2022. Details launching soon.
Venue:
Great Hall at The Leys,
The Fen Causeway, Cambridge CB2 7AD
Study Afternoon
Saturday 9 April 2022, 2:00-5:00pm
Tickets: £20
Concessions: Full-time students: £5
Booking details coming soon.
Venue:
Recital Room, West Road Concert Hall,
Cambridge CB3 9DP
You can see Julian Perkins, CHOC’s Artistic Director, play his arrangement of the first two movements of the overture to Tamerlano on a Kirckman harpsichord in Handel’s music room here.
Cast
James Laing
Photo: Gerard Collett
Christopher Turner
Thalie Knights
Photo: Gerard Collett
Leila Zanette
Photo: Tatiana Karanja
Caroline Taylor
Photo: Madeline Portraits
Jolyon Loy
Sounds Baroque
Photo: Benjamin Harte
Creative Team
Julian Perkins
Artistic Director
Dionysios Kyropoulos
Stage Director
Trui Malten
Lighting Designer
Liam Matthews
Production Manager
CHOC mounts productions of Baroque operas that celebrate the fusion of music and the stage, with performances that trust the composer and are not just ‘historically informed’, but ‘historically inspired’. The vibrant synergy in CHOC’s performances between music and stage respects the integrity of the work and conveys its coherence and passion.
CHOC presents three online, interactive discussions focussed on key aspects of preparing a performance