Handel's oratorio 'Susanna' is performed by the Early Opera Company directed by harpsichordist Christian Curnyn. With Emilie Renard (Susanna), Tim Mead (Joacim), Thomas Walker (First Elder), Derek Welton (Second Elder/Chelsias), Emma Walshe (Daniel) and William Gaunt (Judge).
Handel’s vibrant oratorio tells an intimate tale of intrigue, wrapped in a delicious score, with carefully-drawn characters from the Apocrypha. Virtue and vice, forensic questioning and unjust accusations thread through this rarely heard piece with its dramatic choruses and exquisite arias.
(Note: at 6.30pm, a pre-concert event. Christian Curnyn discusses the evening’s programme with Dr Ruth Smith, author of 'Handel’s Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought'. Free to ticket-holders.)