First published 7 November 2024
The London Handel Festival has announced its 2025 programme, led for the first time by Arcangelo as Principal Ensemble in Residence.
Arcangelo will open the 2025 edition of the London Handel Festival with its first performance of the composer's "grand contrast of Mirth and Melancholy", the 1740 oratorio L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato HWV55. For this performance, Arcangelo will be joined by returning Theodora collaborators, soprano Louise Alder, tenor Stuart Jackson and bass-baritone Adam Plachetka, and debut artist, soprano Paulina Francisco.
Arcangelo will also present two further concerts at the 2025 festival: a recital with guest soprano Emőke Baráth and an all-star chamber ensemble featuring a programme inspired by Handelian heroines, and a young artist platform for the members of the 2024-26 Arcangelo New Ensemblists programme. Additional Arcangelo events for festival-goers, to be announced in full in January, will include open rehearsals, a come and sing event, a talk by Arcangelo Chair of Trustees Sir Nicholas Kenyon, and a premiere listening party for Arcangelo's forthcoming recording of Handel's Chandos Anthems on Alpha Classics.
The wider festival programme includes concert performances by the The Early Opera Company, Barokksolistine and Irish Baroque Orchestra, and the premiere of 'Tales of Apollo and Hercules', a newly-commissioned sung and danced entertainment based on Handel's Apollo e Dafne and The Choice of Hercules.
Speaking at the festival launch event at St George's Hanover Square on Wednesday 6 November, Arcangelo Artistic Director and LHF Artistic Adviser Jonathan Cohen said:
“People go to Leipzig, Bonn, Salzburg and Vienna to immerse themselves authentically in the life and music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Mendelssohn. In the same way, I think that the London Handel Festival is the place to which people from across the globe should come to celebrate the life and work of Handel. In my mind we have an exciting chance to build on past achievements and to attract new international audiences to London to become part of a global Handel family."
The full festival programme is now available to view at the London Handel Festival website. Tickets are on sale to the general public from 20 November.
Further information
The London Handel Festival 2025
Fantasy, myth and legend are the themes of the 2025 London Handel Festival, led for the first time by Arcangelo as Principal Ensemble in Residence. Click here to discover the full festival programme, also featuring the Academy of Ancient Music, the OAE, the Early Opera Company, Barokksolistine, and Irish Baroque Orchestra.