Handel: Belshazzar

An oratorio by the mature Handel.
This work is fundamentally difficult to stage.
In terms of dramatic effect, this production is barely passable, though it is not without goodies.
The greatest strength in this production lies in the orchestra and the chorus, as pointed out by most reviewers, and this is a GREAT saving aspect for a work of this nature.
Not all the soloists are operatic singers; they are for most of the part adequate vocally, but alas, they are more alert dramatically! So I guess there must be some thing wrong with the direction in general, since in the title role, Kenneth Tarver IS an operatic singer, though not a Handellian.
And being worse still, most of the lead singers may not be native English speakers. The recitatives lacked verbal incisiveness, and one would wonder if Kenneth Tarver, being an American tenor, should have been better at this had he been a true Handellian?
Bejun Mehta has the best voice of the cast as Cyrus. His contralto counter-tenor is rich-toned in the...

Glorious Choral Work
Glorious choral music at it's finest is the best way to describe this masterful work. This is the mature Handel at full throttle; the "Big Bow-wow" Handle of Saul and Messiah. Glorious chorus after glorious chorus brings a solid satisfied feeling to the listener. This is grand great art. In this production conducted by Rene Jacobs, the group called the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin shows it's stuff and it's great aray of talent. They can go from being Babylonians to Israelites and back to Babylon by changing headbands or Ivy wreathes. I understand that Mr Jacobs modified some of the score (I do not approve) but most people are unfamiliar with this work so few will know of it. I believe this recording will be very popular and more people in the future will become familiar with it.
I am not so happy with the soloists but I'd like to say a few words about the libretto. It was put together by Charles Jennens (who also did Saul and Messiah) from chapter five of the Book of Daniel...

Another Opinion
There have been three reviews here on amazon of this DVD -- two five-stars and one four-star -- by sensible, tasteful people. It frets me to disagree with them, but I didn't hear or see much to praise in this performance. The orchestra played well, but this is preeminently a work for singers -- soloists and chorus. It wasn't conceived as an opera, but rather as a concert oratorio in English, composed after Handel had concluded that England offered no market for Italian opera. Whether it is 'improved' or fatally compromised by dramatic staging has to be the central question. However, this staging doesn't provide a satisfactory answer, for the simple reason that the staging is utterly incongruous and inconsistent with the affect of the music.

It's a dark, leering, perverse sort of staging. The singers writhe, scuttle, and grimace to the point where, to my ears, their vocal arts are compromised. The emphasis is on the sordid decadence of the Babylonian court of King...

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