“Die Nachtigall des Zaren” (The Tsar’s Nightingale)
Corinna Harfouch, Hubert Wild & Stefan Maaß
Semi-staged reading in German, based on the eponymous book (2010) by Christine Wunnicke about the adventurous life of the castrato Filippo Balatri, interwoven with music by George Frideric Handel, Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi and Georg Philipp Telemann, as well as Heinrich Albert, Sperontes (Johann Sigismund Scholtze), Johann Philipp Krieger, Michel Lambert, Giovanni Battista Brevi and Giovanni Battista Bassani
Reader: Corinna Harfouch
Countertenor: Hubert Wild
Lute: Stefan Maaß
35 €
The life of the castrato Filippo Balatri (1682–1756) reads like a Baroque adventure story: born into a poor family in Pisa, he became the favourite eunuch of Tsar Peter the Great in Moscow. In 1700, the tsar sent a diplomatic delegation to Kalmykia – among them Balatri. When Balatri arrived in the steppe, Ayuki Khan, the ruler of Kalmykia, was so bewitched by his soprano voice that he wanted to keep him. As a farewell gift, he gave the singing prodigy a golden cloth of such value it was said to have made even Louis XIV envious. Later, Balatri travelled all over Europe as a feted singer – and in 1713 made the acquaintance of Handel in London. He recorded this and other weird and wonderful events in detailed diaries which provide almost unique insights into the life of a castrato in the Baroque period. Writer Christine Wunnicke reconstructed his manuscripts in her book, Die Nachtigall des Zaren (“The Tsar’s Nightingale”). At the Handel Festival, actor Corinna Harfouch brings Balatri’s words to life and Hubert Wild lends him a voice, accompanied by Stefan Maaß on the lute.