Italian Cantatas by Handel, performed by Iestyn Davies

In 1732 Senesino, the most famous castrato of the day (along with Farinelli), as a guest of Lord Burlington, gave a concert in York, at the Assembly Rooms which Burlington had designed and had only recently been opened, shortly after the close of the opera season in London. For its first ever Georgian concert, York Georgian Society has organised a modern equivalent of that event. The Society’s new President, Iestyn Davies, one of the finest countertenors of our time (who also sang the role of Farinelli in Claire van Kampen’s play ) will sing four Italian cantatas for alto by Handel accompanied by members of the English Concert, interspersed with some of his instrumental music, in the glamorous but also intimate space of the State Room in the Mansion House. Handel of course was the premier composer of the early Georgian period, and this is a rare opportunity to hear…