Saul

"The singing of Florian Boesch in the title role has all the ardour and passion that one could desire - no merely polite baroque delivery here - and his English diction and sense of drama are both close to impeccable. As his two daughters, the imperious Merab and the more placable Michal, both Anna Prohaska and Giulia Semenzato ... compensate with sparkling coloratura and some stunning displays of bravura in their upper registers. Jake Arditti makes a very male David where the counter-tenor register really pays dividends, and best of all the principal singers is Rupert Charlesworth whose tenor rings out cleanly and crisply in the best baroque style ... The choral singing of the Arnold Schoenberg Choir is impeccable, thrusting and dramatic where needed ... Even more effective is the well-balanced and well-nourished orchestral playing ... The video production by Tiziano Mancini is expectedly excellent ... The recording as a whole gives a generally well-reasoned and exceptionally musical performance of one of Handel's great oratorios".

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"Joachim Klein's queasy-beautiful lighting ... turns Kosky's visuals into a Caravaggio painting by way of Hieronymus Bosch. Everything in this rotting cornucopia of Baroque excess is exaggerated ... Where the DVD gains is in the access it gives to the detail of Purves's astonishing central performance ... Handel's oratorio has never lived as dramatically as it does here, and a short additional documentary about the production only adds to the many reasons to add this to your collection".

"Der Opernfreund kann sich ... erfreuen an Saul vom Glyndebourne-Sommer 2015. Das szenisch aufgeführte Händel-Oratorium ... Kosky wahrt die Balance zwischen Dramatik und Abstraktion ... nie entgleitet Kosky die stringente Psychologie seiner Hauptfiguren. Auf gleicher Höhe: Ivor Bolton mit dem Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Hinreissend und jede Minute Spannend!".

"With its unflinching portrayal of the Israelite king's descent into madness and terrible final lucidity, 'Saul' is arguably both the richest and most disturbing of Handel's oratorios ... In Claus Guth's stark, claustrophonic staging ... the Saul family are no less dysfunctional, with violence likewise an ever'present threat ... The cosmopolitan cast, all accomplished stage animals, throw themselves with gusto into their roles ... All act vividly with their faces as well as voices ... I'm glad to have seen and heard this Viennese production: for its engrossing individual performances, and for Guth's dark, often wince-inducing take on a family in decay and the corrupting force of power amid ever-present brutality".