Live recording from the Göttingen International Händel Festival 2013 Betrayal, revenge, inheritance conflicts and forbidden love at the Persian court – in 1728 this explosive mixture inspired Handel to compose the successful opera Siroe, Re di Persia, one of his last compositions for the Royal Academy of Music at the King’s Theatre. Handel based his work on the libretto by the famous poet Pietro Metastasio. In its first season Siroe was performed on 18 successive evenings, but it was never subsequently revived in Handel’s life time.

The opera received its first performance in Göttingen with a top-rank cast performing under the musical direction of Laurence Cummings. The Financial Times wrote about the premiere: “This is new artistic director Laurence Cummings’ first opera in Göttingen, and it must count as a high point in the festival’s history ... Cummings hits every tempo bang in the middle, so that phrases are light and airy, architecture is solid yet soaring, recitatives feel like free speech, and it is often hard not to stand up and dance. His orchestra is superb. This is both musical discovery and pure joy; this is how Handel should be.”

The live recording will be the only available release on CD of Handel’s “Siroe” at the time. It is the beginning of a new cooperation between the Label Accent and the Göttingen International Händel Festival which plans the release of a series with opera productions on CD.