Saul - Premiere - Schedule, Program & Tickets
Saul - Premiere
Date:
Time:
Price class:
Location:
01.06.2025 , Sunday
18:00
B
Dresden, Semperoper, Theaterplatz 2, 01067 Dresden
Seating plan
Oratorio in three acts libretto by Charles Jennens based on the 1st and 2nd books of Samuel
Premiere June 1, 2025
In English with German and English surtitles
What spiral of violence is unleashed when envy pushes out love, when betrayal and madness determine actions? David's triumph over the giant Goliath ends suddenly because King Saul sees him as a competitor for the throne. Saul does everything he can to kill David, but David enjoys divine protection. In the end, Saul himself dies and David is crowned the new king.
With his almost 70 operas and oratorios, Georg Friedrich Handel is one of the most important composers of the Baroque era. The oratorio “Saul,” premiered in 1739 at the King’s Theater at the Haymarket in London, is a highly political drama that has lost none of its relevance. The brutal story from the Bible also offers space for great feelings; for the love story between Saul's daughter, Michal, and David and for the friendship between Michal's brother Jonathan and David. Incidentally, the funeral march for Saul from the third act became very famous because it was, among other things, played at the funerals of Winston Churchill and George Washington.
The staged version by Claus Guth, who brought a large number of Handel oratorios to the theater stage, celebrated its premiere in Vienna. He sees Saul “as a precise study of a state, but also of a family into which an outsider, a foreign body, invades and causes everything to explode.”
Subject to change.
Premiere June 1, 2025
In English with German and English surtitles
What spiral of violence is unleashed when envy pushes out love, when betrayal and madness determine actions? David's triumph over the giant Goliath ends suddenly because King Saul sees him as a competitor for the throne. Saul does everything he can to kill David, but David enjoys divine protection. In the end, Saul himself dies and David is crowned the new king.
With his almost 70 operas and oratorios, Georg Friedrich Handel is one of the most important composers of the Baroque era. The oratorio “Saul,” premiered in 1739 at the King’s Theater at the Haymarket in London, is a highly political drama that has lost none of its relevance. The brutal story from the Bible also offers space for great feelings; for the love story between Saul's daughter, Michal, and David and for the friendship between Michal's brother Jonathan and David. Incidentally, the funeral march for Saul from the third act became very famous because it was, among other things, played at the funerals of Winston Churchill and George Washington.
The staged version by Claus Guth, who brought a large number of Handel oratorios to the theater stage, celebrated its premiere in Vienna. He sees Saul “as a precise study of a state, but also of a family into which an outsider, a foreign body, invades and causes everything to explode.”
Subject to change.