Barry Kosky's Saul for Adelaide Festival

The Adelaide Festival announces the return of the Barrie Kosky in March 2017 with his newest production, George Frideric Handel’s Saul. Produced by the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, it will form the centrepiece of the 2017 Adelaide Festival.

Speaking from Berlin, Barrie Kosky said: "I am thrilled after 21 years to be coming back to the Adelaide Festival with an opera production that means so much to me. I am also thrilled to be part of Neil and Rachel's first festival and I am looking forward to a few warm, balmy nights on the Torrens at my favourite Arts Festival in the world."

Minister for the Arts, the Hon Jack Snelling welcomed the news saying, “It’s extremely exciting to have Barrie Kosky’s Saul coming to the 2017 Adelaide Festival. It will not only bring in a huge number of interstate and overseas travellers, but it will also provide an incredible opportunity for the local artists who get to perform alongside some of the world’s best opera singers and baroque musicians. Co-Directors Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield have worked really hard to bring this incredible opera to our state, and I can’t wait to see what else they have in store for next year."

Kosky’s Saul, which had its premiere at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2015, will play to Adelaide Festival audiences in March 2017 in an Australian exclusive season. Supported by designs from Katrin Lea Tag, Kosky delves into Handel’s score to create an associative dreamscape and a baroque nightmare world in which unfolds this mythic tale of a Lear-like mad king and his crumbling family dynasty.

Saul explores the first King of Israel’s relationship with his eventual successor, David, as it swings between extremes of admiration, jealousy, love and rage, and finally leads to Saul’s tragic death. Handel’s characterisations of Saul and David, and his portrayal of the battle of David and Goliath, are among the German composer’s most powerful and vivid. The first of Handel’s great English oratorios, Saul melds psychologically probing arias with exquisite, mighty choruses in a work epic in theatrical scale and emotion, described by Kosky as “one of the great pieces of 18th-century music.”

Conducting the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra will be rising star of Australian baroque performance, Erin Helyard, newly appointed Artistic Director of Sydney's Pinchgut Opera, and Musical Director of Brisbane Baroque.

Reprising the title role of Saul from the original Glyndebourne Festival season is bass-baritone Christopher Purves. American counter-tenor Christopher Lowrey will sing David, and Australian tenor Adrian Strooper, a member of Barrie's company at Komische Oper Berlin, will play Saul's son (and David's lover) Jonathan.

British soprano Mary Bevan will be joined by Australia's Taryn Fiebig as Saul's daughters Merab and Michal, the inimitable Kanen Breen will play the Witch of Endor, and Stuart Jackson will reprise his turn as the High Priest - Kosky's Master of these amazing ceremonies.

Adelaide Festival Artistic Directors Neil Armfield AO and Rachel Healy said: “Kosky’s virtuosic stagecraft, rich imaginative world and subversive humour is perfectly matched with Handel’s magnificent oratorio. Sitting in the Glyndebourne Festival audience in August 2015 it could not have been clearer that we were witnessing an artist at the peak of his powers. Barrie has created a work that is deservedly being regarded as a masterpiece.

"There are many significant and acclaimed Australian artists who have built stellar careers overseas and it is unfortunate that Australian audiences don’t always have an opportunity to see their work at its full maturity. Consequently, we are immensely pleased that the 2017 Adelaide Festival will provide the platform for audiences to see international performing arts of this standard of achievement. That Barrie has a special connection to the Adelaide Festival is a delightful bonus."

SAUL

3, 5, 7 & 9 March 2017, Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

General public tickets on sale: Friday 19 August 2016

Tickets: BASS 131 246 or adelaidefestival.com.au

A Glyndebourne Festival Opera production, originally performed in the Glyndebourne Festival 2015. Presented by the Adelaide Festival in association with the State Opera of South Australia, with support from Adelaide Festival Centre. This project has been assisted by the Government of South Australia through Arts South Australia, Adelaide City Council, the South Australian Tourism Commission and the Australian Government through the Ministry for the Arts’ Catalyst— Australian Arts and Culture Fund.

Image Credit: Bill Cooper.