Enter to win tickets to Handel and His Rivals – Opera Arias from 18^th Century London, presented by Early Music Vancouver at Christ Church Cathedral on Friday, September 16.

Award-winning soprano Amanda Forsythe will join Vancouver’s own beloved conductor Alexander Weimann, and the Juno-nominated Pacific Baroque Orchestra in giving wildly virtuosic voice to the tempestuous queens, heartbroken lovers, and mythic figures who populated London’s opera houses in the early 1700’s.

The program will feature arias for soprano composed by G.F. Handel for the Royal Academy of Music, as well as arias written by less well known rival composers like Bononcini, Hasse, and Porpora. These rival works were all performed at the Opera of the Nobility, a company which managed, if only briefly, to put Handel out of business. Well known, arias will include ‘Mio caro bene’ and ‘Se’l mio duol’ from Handel’s opera Rodelinda as well as ‘Da tempeste’ and ‘Piangero’ from Giulio Cesare. 

Praised by Opera news for her “wonderful agility and silvery top notes”, Amanda Forsythe’s return to Vancouver has been highly anticipated by Early Music Vancouver audiences since her spectacular 2014 performance in Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo.