Since the 1970s continuo performance of secco recitative has been intensively discussed in the historically oriented field of performance practice. The trigger was the idea, probably stemming from ...

What a year 1707 was. In that year, two 22-year old German composers wrote some of their most precocious and important vocal music, pieces that to this day remain central to the repertoire. One of the ...

Complicated love triangles, hidden identities and a love song to a tree ― George Frideric Handel’s dramedy “Xerxes” makes its Detroit Opera debut this weekend. The production is an adaptation of ...

Most of Handel's recitative is gone (thankfully), and the distribution of arias among the lead roles seems a little arbitrary, but a good sense of pace is retained. For the chorus, the company is ...