Mostly Mezzo Mondays: Hypermnestre and Hercules
Mostly Mezzo Mondays: a recurring (though not weekly) feature where, on Monday nights, I blog a list of the upcoming broadcasts that have caught my eye on World Concert Hall. My interests: baroque vocal music, art song recitals, and a list of favorite singers.
This week: two baroque operas in concert, one fairly well known, the other quite obscure.
I had to look up the name of Charles-Hubert Gervais, a composer of the French baroque period. His opera Hypermnestre is receiving its first performance since the eighteenth century (according to the Müpa website) in Budapest this week, with Katherine Watson in the title role. Tuesday, September 18; video livestream on the Müpa website.
Handel’s Hercules, on the other hand, is a much more familiar piece (at least to me). Catherine Wyn-Rogers sings the central role of Dejanira in a performance with the Handel and Haydn Society; her co-stars include Jonathan Lemalu, Amanda Forsythe, William Purefoy, and Robert Murray. Sunday, September 23 on WFMT.
