With a much-loved work for strings and two premieres, our autumn performance will be a special occasion indeed. In a first for the Handel Opera Project, the 40+ strings of the Oakland Civic Orchestra, conducted by Martha Stoddard, will fill the splendid acoustics of Bernard Maybeck’s architectural masterpiece with Ralph Vaughan Williams’s rich and spacious tribute to a sixteenth-century English master, the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, for double string orchestra and string quartet.
Mr. Handel graciously cedes his usual place on the program in order to honor Arnold Schoenberg during his sesquicentennial year, with the first performance of a new version of his early post-romantic song cycle, Das Buch der hängenden Gärten (The Book of the Hanging Gardens). Handel Opera Project founder William Ludtke has arranged these brief settings of poems by Stefan George for chamber orchestra, bringing into sharp focus the intricately woven texture with which Schoenberg undergirds George’s deeply erotic poetry. Celebrated contralto Sara Couden will bring these songs to life.
The performance concludes with the premiere of William Ludtke’s own Job, a powerful chamber opera setting of one of the cornerstone works of the Western tradition. Olivia Freidenreich, who directed our production of Antonio Caldara’s The Card Game in June, returns as stage director for this drama of timeless questions.
Tickets are available on our web site, thehandeloperaproject.com – and good news: we have a new online box office via onthestage.com. We are sure that you will find the new platform easy and convenient to use; but of course, should you encounter any problems, please do let us know right away!