Theodora, HWV 68

Composer: Handel, George Frideric

Librettist/Text Author: Morell, T.

Libretto Source: Boyle, Robert

Conductor: Bolton, Ivor

Orchestra: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

Chorus: Salzburg Bach Choir

Chorus Master: Glassner, Alois

Didymus: Mehta, Bejun

Irene: Fink, Bernarda

Messenger: Davies, Ryland

Septimius: Kaiser, Joseph

Theodora: Schafer, Christine

Valens: Kranzle, Johannes Martin

Set Designer: Kurz, Annette

Costume Designer: Renzenbrink, Ursula

Lighting Designer: Bolliger, Stefan

Stage Director: Loy, Christof

Television Director: Rossacher, Hannes

---

Date of Production: 25-07-2009

Festival: Salzburg Festival

Venue: Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg

Playing Time: 03:07:42

Catalogue Number: A04001521

---

A highlight of the Handel commemorative year (250th anniversary of death) was the Salzburg Festival's first-ever staging of Handel's oratorio Theodora of 1750. Christof Loy, who was voted "director of the year" three times by the prestigious journal "Opernwelt", created a production that is, in his words, "almost as an installation", and groups his characters around the remains of a gigantic organ in situations that echo the libretto's tragic dilemma of love, faith and virtue. His concept is supported by the vigorous Ivor Bolton and the Freiburger Barockorchester playing on original instruments, the Salzburger Bachchor, and, above all, by a fine cast. It is led by the luminous Christine Schafer as a Theodora who "perfectly encapsulates the heroine's combination of fragility and defiance" (AFP), and countertenor Bejun Mehta, who "excels as Theodora's lover Didymus" (The New York Times).

Video director Hannes Rossacher, known both in the pop (Rolling Stones) and classical worlds, captures the essence of this rarely recorded work, another joint project of the exclusive audiovisual partners Salzburg Festival and Unitel Classica.