Royal Handel Eva Zaïcik & Le Consort

• Georg Friedrich Händel (1685 - 1759): Flavio, Re de Longobardi, HWV 16:
• 1 Handel: Flavio, Re de Longobardi, HWV 16: Aria "Rompo i lacci, e frango i dardi" 04:57
• 2 Ariosti: Caio Marzio Coriolano: Aria "Sagri numi" 08:24
• Georg Friedrich Händel: Admeto, Re di Tessaglia, HWV 22:
• 3 Handel: Admeto, Re di Tessaglia, HWV 22: Aria "Gelosia, spietata aletto" 04:36
• Siroe, Re di Persia, HWV 24:
• 4 Handel: Siroe, Re di Persia, HWV 24: Recitativo "Son stanco" 01:26
• 5 Handel: Siroe, Re di Persia, HWV 24: Aria "Deggio morire, o stelle" 06:54
• Tolomeo, Re d'Egitto, HWV 25:
• 6 Handel: Tolomeo, Re d'Egitto, HWV 25: Recitativo "Inumano fratel" 01:24
• 7 Handel: Tolomeo, Re d'Egitto, HWV 25: Aria "Stille amare" 05:04
• Floridante, HWV 14:
• 8 Handel: Floridante, HWV 14: Aria "Ma priva vedrò le stelle" 03:43
• Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17:
• 9 Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17: Aria "L'aure che spira" 04:31
• Ottone, Re di Germanie, HWV 15:
• 10 Handel: Ottone, Re di Germanie, HWV 15: Aria "Ah! Tu non sai" 06:08
• Attilio Ariosti (1666 - 1729): Caio Marzio Coriolano:
• 11 Ariosti: Caio Marzio Coriolano: Aria "E' pur il gran piacer" 03:33
• Giovanni Bononcini (1670 - 1747): Crispo:
• 12 Bononcini: Crispo: Aria "Strazio, scempio, furia e morte" 01:49
• Georg Friedrich Händel: Radamisto, HWV 12:
• 13 Handel: Radamisto, HWV 12: Aria "Ombra cara" 08:29
• Riccardo Primo, Re d'Inghilterra, HWV 23:
• 14 Handel: Riccardo Primo, Re d'Inghilterra, HWV 23: Aria "Agitato da fiere tempeste" 04:01
• Total Runtime 01:04:59

Info for Royal Handel

London, February 1719: the birth of the Royal Academy of Music. George Frideric Handel was appointed musical director. German-born Handel, having spent four years in Italy, wanted to make London the new capital of opera. The only language to be sung on the stage of the King’s Theatre was to be Italian, and two other composers, Attilio Ariosti and Giovanni Battista Bononcini, were imported from the Italian peninsula. Both men were string players and contributed a new instrumental sweep to the company.

Public enthusiasm reached considerable heights: thirty-four operas – more than 460 performances in all – were given at the Royal Academy over a period of nine years. Handel premiered his masterpieces Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Ottone and Radamisto. Ariosti and Bononcini also enjoyed great success between 1720 and 1723, notably with Coriolano (Ariosti) from which the sublime aria ‘Sagri numi’ is taken. ‘Royal Handel’ is a musical portrait of the first Royal Academy of Music. Eva Zaïcik and her partners in Le Consort celebrate the prodigious variety of the Handelian genius and introduce us to previously unrecorded arias by Ariosti and Bononcini: ‘We are captivated by the ghostly sonorities of “Stille amare”, the engulfing fury of “Agitato da fiere tempeste”, the virtuosity of “Gelosia, spietata Aletto”, the swirling excitement of “L’aure che spira”, the ascetic counterpoint of “Ombra cara” and the poignancy of “Deggio morire”.

Eva Zaicik, mezzo-soprano
Le Consort

Eva Zaïcik
2018 saw young mezzo-soprano Eva Zaïcik – one of the most renowned opera singers of her generation - carry off the « Revelation Opera Singers » award at the « Victoires de la Musique Classique », as well as prizes in two prestigious international competitions: 2nd Prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium; and in the “Voix Nouvelles” competition.

Her golden timbre, impressive range and stage presence had already earned her a place on the 8th session of William Christie's Jardin des Voix with Les Arts Florissants, and other roles followed rapidly.

This interest in exchange between different cultures and time, travelling between Baroque and Romantic music with the same facilities led to the title role in Dido and Aeneas in Versailles Operas; Lybie in Lully's Phaeton at the Perm and Versailles Operas with the Poème Harmonique; La Messaggiera and Speranza in Monteverdi's Orfeo Theatre des Champs Elysées; the 3rd Lady in Mozart's Magic Flute with Les Talens Lyriques, but also to Melibea (Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims), Farnace (Mozart's Mitridate), Cherubino (Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro), Judith (Bartók's A Kékszakallù Herceg Vara), Diane à la Houppe (Honegger's Les Aventures du Roi Pausole) and Ernesto (Haydn's Il Mondo della Luna) with the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris.

In 2019, she premiered the title role in Carmen at the Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne, and Sélyzette in Dukas' Ariane and Bluebeard at Toulouse's Théâtre du Capitole.

2020, will see her performing in many prestigious productions as Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Eté with the Aalborg Symfoniokester in Danemark under the baton of Maestro Michael Schønwandt, then on a big tour in Brazil. She will also perform in New York as mezzo solo on the Monteverdi’s Marian Vespers with l’Ensemble Pygmalion, and will appears on Olivier Py’s new production as Paulina in Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya Dama, before living on a Haendel Tour with Les Arts Florissants.

She has performed in many prestigious venues both in France and abroad (Philharmonie de Paris, Aix en Provence, Chorégies d'Orange, Avignon, Oude Muziek d’Utrecht, Festival Messiaen, Diaghilev Festival de Perm, Auditorio Nacional Madrid, Tchaïkovsky Concert Hall, Barbican Center, Royal Albert Hall de Londres, Seoul ...) under the baton of such great conductors as (Alain Altinoglu, Leonardo Garcia Alarcòn, Marco Guidarini, Emmanuelle Haïm, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Cornelius Meister, David Reiland ...

She often joins Justin Taylor and his Consort for several baroque programmes (including performances at Antwerp's AMUZ Festival and the Bruges Concertgebouw). One of these programmes, devoted to French Cantatas, “Venez Chère Ombre”, has been recorded by Alpha.

Booklet for Royal Handel