Handel: Theodora, DiDonato/Il Pomo d'Oro (3-CD)

“The finest performance, and the biggest single reason for acquiring the recording, is Joyce DiDonato in the role of Theodora’s confidant Irene. True to form, DiDonato probes emotional extremes.” — Gramophone

Five superb singers — Lisette Oropesa, Joyce DiDonato, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Michael Spyres and John Chest — portray the characters in Handel’s Theodora under the direction of Maxim Emelyanychev, Chief Conductor of the instrumentalists and choral singers of Il Pomo d’Oro. An elevated and moving oratorio, Theodora tells the story of Christian martyrs in ancient Antioch under Roman occupation. Handel considered it among his best works. This recording was made at the end of a concert tour that visited Vienna, Milan, Paris, Luxembourg and Essen. “An evening of top-flight singing of a kind that is only rarely experienced,” was how one German reviewer summed up the performance, while in France it resulted in “a state of bliss.”

Handel Theodora
Lisette Oropesa Theodora
Joyce DiDonato Irene
Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian Didymus
Michael Spyres Septimius
John Chest Valens
Il Pomo d’Oro
Maxim Emelyanychev conductor

Discs: 3
Record Label: Erato
Release Date: October 28, 2022