Haydn - Scena de Berenice, Hob. XXIVa:10
December 1, 2022
Soprano Kaytlin Withers ’23 MMus is the featured soloist in this performance of Franz Joseph Haydn's Scena de Berenice, Hob.XXIVa:10. Robert G. Hasty conducts the Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra.
Program Note
This operatic scene is derived from Pietro Metastasio’s Antigono, which involves the princess of Egypt, Berenice, having been betrothed to Antigonus, the king of Macedonia. But Antigonus’s son, Demetrio, finds himself also in love with Berenice, and decides to resolve this conflict by sentencing himself to his own death. Madness and delusion come through in Haydn’s constantly shifting harmonies, oscillating recitatives and ariosos, and a “frenzied” conclusion of an aria that ends in a very dramatic F Minor.