Handel’s Alexander’s Feast
Live at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Proms: Peter Whelan conducts the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Chorus in Handel's Alexander's Feast, with soloists Hilary Cronin, Hugh Cutting and Stuart Jackson.
Live at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Proms: Peter Whelan conducts the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Chorus in Handel's Alexander's Feast, with soloists Hilary Cronin, Hugh Cutting and Stuart Jackson.
Presented by Hanna French live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.
George Frideric Handel: Alexander’s Feast 1742 version (sung in English)
Hilary Cronin (soprano)
Hugh Cutting (counter-tenor)
Stuart Jackson (tenor)
Irish Baroque Chorus
Irish Baroque Orchestra
Peter Whelan (conductor)
Award-winning Baroque dynamos Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra, praised for their ‘stylish verve’ and ‘rich insight and charisma’, make their Proms debut with a Handel rarity that celebrates the power of music itself. Alexander’s Feast is an oratorio of operatic intensity, setting John Dryden’s poem about the musician Timotheus, who stirs Alexander the Great to destructive revenge. The piece is heard for the first time at the Proms in the three-part version the composer made for performances in Dublin in 1742.
In the interval Dr Julia Hartley discusses what we know about the real Alexander and the way Persia has inspired opera composers.
On radio
Broadcast
- Sat 30 Aug 2025 19:30ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 3
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