Set Designer

With the fifth new production of Handel’s Agrippina in the history of Halle Opera, two world stars will be making their first appearance at the Handel Festival on the Saale: the British conductor Laurence Cummings, formerly director of the Handel Festivals in London and Göttingen and today music director at the Academy of Ancient Music London, and the Serbian scenic designer Aleksandar Denić, known for his powerful graphic creations for Emir Kusturica and Frank Castorf. Together with Walter Sutcliffe, they are creating a vibrant new perspective on Handel’s youthful work. Romelia Lichtenstein leads an international cast of prominent guest singers and ensemble members. This melodious comedy of oversized egos in a dysfunctional First Family gave the 24-year-old composer his breakthrough. It shows a society driven by greed for power, vanity, cunning and stupidity in a complex plot with numerous, fortuitous reversals of situation.

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Agrippina

The Opera Halle

The years between the death of Ivan the Terrible and the ascension of the Romanov family to the throne are known in Russia as the “Time of Troubles”. During this time, Boris Godunov strives to gain power with an iron determination. However, the ghosts of the past catch up with him and he dies a madman, abandoned and betrayed by everyone. In the meantime, the country sinks ever deeper into corruption, putsches and intrigue. A new “Time of Troubles” dawned during Modest Mussorgsky’s lifetime: the old order faltered and could not survive, everyone felt it. During a period of political upheaval and shaken by dramatic developments in his private life, Mussorgsky created a work about the arrogance of power and the eroticism of betrayal – as contradictory and fascinating as his personality itself.

Set Designer

Aleksandar Denić

Events

Past events

6 - 15 Jun, 2025

Agrippina · Händel-Festspiele Halle

3 - 11 Oct, 2024

Boris Godunov · Staatsoper Hamburg

About

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