Handel's Admeto
Axel Köhler (stage director), Howard Arman (music director) – With Gerd Vogel (Meraspe), Melanie Hirsch (Orindo) – Opernhaus Halle
Cast
Axel Köhler — Stage director
Roland Aeschlimann — Set designer
Marie-Thérèse Jossen — Costumes designer
Gerd Vogel — Meraspe
Melanie Hirsch — Orindo
Raimund Nolte — Hercule
Tim Mead — Trasimede
Program notes
Axel Köhler stages an outstanding production of Admeto, one of Handel's masterworks.
Georg Friedrich Handel's Admeto is considered one of the most successful operas produced in the first half of the 18th century. Along with Radamisto, Giulio Cesare, Tamerlano, Rodelinda and Alessandro, which were also written in this period, Admeto belongs to Handel's so-called "London operas" – which were all composed for the Royal Academy of Music.
Though born in Halle, Germany, Handel spent most of his adult life in London and became a British subject in 1727. Axel Köhler, the celebrated counter-tenor who is active in Munich, Halle and Berlin – now also well-known for his work as a director – has brought Admeto into the modern era in timeless style by the skilful application of imaginative theatrical digressions. Köhler's production at the Halle Opernhaus revisits a work that encompasses comedy, tragedy and almost absurd grotesqueness and gives it a convincing metaphor in the form of a modern hospital.
