2 CD
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€ 22.95
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Label Signum Classics |
UPC 0635212057926 |
Catalogue number SIGCD 579 |
Release date 07 June 2019 |
Handel’s Queens features some of the most exquisite pieces of music written by G.F. Handel and his contemporaries for the two finest singers of the eighteenth century, Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni. Often wrongfully framed as rivals, these dazzling new recordings with Mary Bevan and Lucy Crowe reveal the distinctive yet versatile talent of the Italian vocalists.
Led by London Early Opera Director, Bridget Cunningham, Handel’s Queens serves an example of the group’s dedication to imaginative programming and outstanding period performance, placing them at the forefront of baroque research.
Mary Bevan appears with leading opera houses, orchestras and ensembles worldwide. For the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden she sang Morgana in a new Richard Jones Alcina, Lila in David Bruce The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, performed the title roles of Rossi Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and of Turnage Coraline at the Barbican, and made her main stage debut as Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro. For English National Opera, roles include Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, Eurydice in Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld and Zerlina Don Giovanni. She made her debut with Opera di Roma as Cleopatra Giulio Cesare, returning as Morgana, also debuting for the Zurich Opera House (La Folie Platée) and Bayerische Staatsoper (title role La Calisto). Opera highlights elsewhere have included appearances with Opera de Monte Carlo, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro La Fenice, Royal Danish Opera, and the Bolshoi Theatre.
Bevan’s concert performances include her Carnegie Hall debut as Dalinda Ariodante with the English Concert (Harry Bicket), Creation at the Barbican with the Academy of Ancient Music, Sally Beamish The Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, orchestrated Schubert songs with the CBSO (Edward Gardner) and appearances with the Handel and Haydn Society Boston, Philharmonia Baroque, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Barokksolistine, LPO and at the BBC Proms. She has toured extensively across Europe, Australia, Asia and the US with the Kammerorchester Basel, Australian Chamber Orchestra and English Concert, and she appears regularly in recital at Wigmore Hall.
Bevan’s wide-ranging discography includes numerous releases on Signum Records: a recording of orchestral French song entitled Visions Illuminées, art song albums Voyages and Divine Muse with pianist Joseph Middleton, and Handel’s Queens. Other albums include Handel's The Triumph of Time and Truth and Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, Vaughan Williams Symphony No.3 and Schubert Rosamunde with the BBC Philharmonic, Arthur Sullivan songs (Chandos), Vaughan Williams folk songs (Albion), Brahms Liebesliederwaltzer (Resonus), and more.
Bevan is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2019 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2025.
London Early Opera are leading exponents of baroque research as they work closely with musicologists, historians, editors and researchers finding new interesting programmes, unrecorded music which feature detailed historical performance practice.
LEO link dramatic music and singing with narration and art history to create magical performances in their oratorio and concert performances.
They have recently recorded discs of Handel at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and Handel in Italy with multi Grammy winning producer Chris Alder and singers Sophie, Mary and Ben Bevan, Eleanor Dennis, Greg Tassell, Kirsty Hopkins, Claire Bessent, Charles MacDougal.
The group is directed by harpsichordist, conductor and early music specialist Bridget Cunningham and they have performed to acclaim at several major venues including Southwark Cathedral, Grosvenor Chapel and St James’ Church, Piccadilly and across France.
London Early Opera offers concerts, operas, educational workshops, lecture recitals and recordings and collaborate on other projects such as their recent recording of George Butterworth.
Bridget Cunningham is a
prizewinning harpsichordist,
musicologist and an international,
versatile conductor who trained at
the Royal College of Music where
she was awarded a Fellowship.
This celebratory recording is part
of an important larger series of
her albums with Signum Classics
– many of which include world
premiere recordings.
As Artistic Director of London
Early Opera, Cunningham is a
leading exponent of baroque music
and created these outstanding
recordings with many international
singers such as Sophie Bevan, Lucy
Crowe and Mary Bevan, baroque
musicians and historians. Albums
include Handel’s Eight Great
Harpsichord Suites, Handel in Italy,
Caio Fabbricio HWV A9
, Handel at
Vauxhall, Handel in Ireland and
Handel’s Queens which have been
reviewed with international acclaim
and shortlisted for a Gramophone
Award nomination in 2020;
“Handel has never sounded better”
(Handel’s Queens) ★★★★★
BBC Music Magazine, 2019
“Bridget Cunningham is just such
a player... Her feeling for dance
rhythms is infectious and her
ability to entertain unassailable”
(Handel’s Eight Great Harpsichord
Suites) ★★★★★ 5 stars BBC Music
Magazine, 2022
Cunningham’s harpsichord
performances include playing at
the London Handel Festival, Maison
Hine Cognac, Victoria International
Festival, Gozo as well as for the
Royal family at Buckingham
Palace. She has performed at the
Innsbruck Festival, Yale University,
St John’s Smith Square, Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, Handel Hendrix
Museum, St George’s Hanover
Square, the Foundling Museum
and St Martin-in-the-Fields. She
regularly collaborates with baroque
dance groups and has a passion for
combining the artworld with music. Cunningham is a keen advocate
for directing baroque music from
the harpsichord. As well as her
numerous performances including
several of Handel’s operas, Bach’s
Easter Oratorio, Vivaldi’s Gloria and
a 400th anniversary performance of
Monteverdi’s Vespers at Southwark
Cathedral, she has also directed
a world premiere for BBC Radio 4
with London Early Opera written
by a BBC Inspire Young Composer of the Year, Grace Evangeline-
Mason, for the 300th Anniversary
of Handel’s Water Music.
She has appeared on several BBC
Radio and TV broadcasts including
BBC Radio 3 In Tune, BBC 2 Messiah,
BBC 4 Vivaldi’s Women, Radio 4
Front Row and SkyArts, RTE, RTP
and Radio Stephansdom.