Concert performance
Opera drammatica in three acts (1760 or 1763)
Libretto by the composer, based on the myth of Thalestris and Gautier de Costes de La Calprenède’s novel Cassandre (1650)
Musical director: Attilio Cremonesi
Talestri: Katharina Ruckgaber
Antiope: Corinna Scheurle
Oronte: Ray Chenez
Tomiri: Roberta Invernizzi
Learco: Federico Fiorio
Walkenried Consort
Handel Festival Orchestra Halle
65/45/30/20 €
Amazons and men – never an easy relationship. According to Greek mythology, the female horseback warriors suffered no men in their state. Is life for women different when they are ruled by a queen? In the second half of the 18th century, this evidently controversial topic piqued the interest of a woman of a generation young enough to be Handel’s granddaughter: Maria Antonia Walpurgis (1724–1780), a Bavarian princess who married the elector of Saxony. In Dresden, she staged the story of Talestri, a queen who illicitly loves the Prince Oronte, a man condemned to be sacrificed to death for being found among the Amazons. Talestri finds herself tragically torn between duty to the state and forbidden love. The text and music of this “opera drammatica”, the plot of which can be read as a feminine riposte to convention – and not only that of the 18th century – were written by Maria Antonia Walpurgis herself.
With the kind support of the Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung and Saalesparkasse.