Zurich Opera launches new Early Music festival
This spring, Opernhaus Zürich launches ‘Zurich Barock’, a new strand devoted to 18th-century repertoire, featuring some of today’s luminaries of Baroque music.
One of Switzerland’s leading opera companies, the Opernhaus Zürich will be holding the inaugural edition of ‘Zürich Barock’, a new festival placing Early Music at the centre of its spring programming. The line-up, running from 20 to 29 March, combines a rarely staged French opera with two Handel works and Bach’s major Passions, alongside several high-profile guest artists.
The festival is the brainchild of Matthias Schulz, Artistic Director and General Manager, who took up the post last August. ‘With Zürich Barock, we are opening a new artistic window at the Opernhaus Zürich, one that will return each year shortly before Easter,’ says Schulz. ‘The Baroque era contains an almost unimaginable wealth of music. It is estimated that around 25,000 operas were composed in the 18th century alone, yet only a fraction are heard today. This festival is about rediscovery, about illuminating the richness, diversity and boldness of that sound-world.’
At the heart of the programme is a new production of Scylla et Glaucus, the only opera by Jean-Marie Leclair. Premiered in 1746, the work is seldom performed today and is a notable choice for a major house. Claus Guth directs, returning to Zurich with a piece that blends mythological drama with tightly drawn personal conflict. In the pit, Emmanuelle Haïm leads her period ensemble, Le Concert d’Astrée, bringing established Baroque expertise to a score unfamiliar to many audiences.
Handel features prominently elsewhere in the programme. Giulio Cesare in Egitto is presented in a co-production with the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, directed by Davide Livermore. The staging relocates the action to a modern Nile cruise ship, providing a contemporary frame for one of the composer’s most frequently performed operas. Cecilia Bartoli sings Cleopatra, a role closely associated with her international career, alongside Carlo Vistoli in the title role, and Anne Sofie von Otter as Cornelia.
A second Handel opera, Acis and Galatea, will be given in concert form. Written early in the composer’s career, it already displays the vocal brilliance and dramatic instinct that would define his later stage works. The performance is led by Philippe Jaroussky, who makes his Zurich Opera House debut as a conductor, directing Orchestra La Scintilla.
The concert strand also includes Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions. The former is performed by Orchestra La Scintilla and the Zürcher Sing-Akademie under Florian Helgath. For the St Matthew Passion, Raphaël Pichon appears with Ensemble Pygmalion. Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique, acclaimed as a Baroque specialist, completes the programme with a selection of Handel arias alongside Concerto Köln.
For a first edition, Zürich Barock’s programme achieves a thoughtful balance: an operatic rediscovery, a repertory staple, a conducting debut and two large-scale choral works. Schulz further comments on the historically-informed performance element: ‘Zurich has a unique foundation for the festival’s exploratory approach. The HIP movement, profoundly shaped here by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, led to the creation of Orchestra La Scintilla, whose approach to gut strings, lighter bows and a highly nuanced articulation creates an immediacy of sound that can be delicate and filigree or raw and energetic. To cultivate such a distinctive Baroque sound culture from within an opera house orchestra is exceptional in Europe. Zürich Barock brings that identity into focus while also welcoming leading voices of the international early music scene.’
As the festival establishes itself, it will likely be on the strength of that blend – familiar titles to draw audiences in and less-travelled paths to justify the journey.
Full information about the first edition of Zürich Barock is available on the Opernhaus Zürich website.