Handel was in Rome in 1708 when he received a commission for a large sacred oratorio for Easter from Marquis Francesco Maria Marescotti Ruspoli, his patron at the time. La resurrezione was performed for the first time at Palazzo Bonelli ai Santissimi Apostoli on 8 April 1708, already in a staged form. The theme is highly symbolic: the action takes place between Good Friday and Easter, alternating between the clashes between Lucifer and the Angel and the profound meditations of Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleophas and St John the Evangelist. It is a struggle between faith and its absence, between enthusiasm and cynicism in today’s existence. Conductor George Petrou, specialist in the Baroque repertoire leads an excellent cast in Caracalla. Pisa-born Ilaria Lanzino makes her debut after much success abroad, notably as seen on OperaVision with productions from Germany and Poland. ‘In this journey in search of faith’, Lanzino concludes, ‘we attempt to answer this question: can faith save us from the pain of mourning and the loss of meaning in the face of death?’ La resurrezione is brought to Slippedisc readers courtesy of OperaVision.
The Plot: ‘It is the story of a contemporary family mourning the sudden loss of a child. The death of Jesus is not presented as a biblical and sacred event but as a human tragedy linked to the daily life of a family group, whose members react in different ways but with attitudes similar to those of the characters in the oratorio.’ This is how director Ilaria Lanzino describes her staging of George Friedric Handel’s La resurrezione at the Basilica di Massenzio in the Roman Forum as part of the 2025 Caracalla Festival of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
Sung in Italian. Subtitles in English and Italian.
Streamed on Friday 8th August 2025 at 1900 CET / London 1800 / New York 1300
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