Handel Brockes Passion

Handel's rarely-heard German Passion oratorio, with the Metropolitan Festival Choir, period instrument orchestra; Evangelist Michael Colvin; soprano Jacqueline Woodley; and bass Geoffrey Sirett as Jesus. Dr. Jonathan Oldengarm, direction and continuo.

This concert is offered in person ($30/$15 for students/youth) and online, livestream/on-demand ($15) 

Pre-concert talk: 6:30 p.m.
Concert: 7:30 p.m.

The Metropolitan Festival Choir and Baroque Orchestra (Jonathan Oldengarm, direction and continuo) present Handel's rarely-heard Brockes Passion on Good Friday, 2023.

Additional Soloists include Robert Kinar (Petrus); and soliloquents Jane Fingler, Gisele Kulak, Veronika Anissimova, Michelle Simmons (Judas), Charles Davidson, Nicholas Higgs, and John Pepper.

6:30 p.m.: Pre-Concert Talk with Jonathan Oldengarm
7:10 p.m.: Organ Prelude (Bach's Sei gegrüßet, BWV 768) by Jonathan Oldengarm
7:30 p.m.: Concert

Composed sometime between 1715 and 1719 while Handel was living in London, this work is a setting of vivid Passion libretto penned by Handel's law school classmate Barthold Heinrich Brockes. It is distinct from e.g. the Bach Passions in that it is a purely poetic telling of the story, rather than a faithful recitation of the scriptural text. As such, it was banned from liturgical use at the time, and could only be presented in concert. Georg Philipp Telemann (who, along with Reinhold Keiser and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, also set the text), performed all four settings in four-night marathons for several years, beginning in 1719 in Hamburg.

This is a vivid, passionate account of the most dramatic week in the Christian liturgical year that is often cited, yet rarely sung. Don't miss this opportunity to experience another Handel masterwork, written in a style that forms a marked contrast with Messiah.