New York Classical Review

Harry Bicket. Photo: Richard Haughton

Handel wrote over 40 operas, and more than two dozen oratorios, and it would be an extraordinary feat for any ensemble to perform all of them.

New York audiences may be dreaming that impossible dream. Over the past several years, on a nearly annual basis, the English Concert, conductor Harry Bicket, and a rotating cast of singers have been delivering concert versions of Handel operas on Sunday afternoons at Carnegie Hall. These concerts have been among the finest in memory across that stretch of time—every one has delivered dazzling singing, and energetic playing from the orchestra.

This Sunday, these musicians will bring the great Rinaldo to the Perelman Stage in Stern Auditorium. Tenor Iestyn Davies will sing the role of the knight, soprano Joélle Harvey is his beloved Almirena, with Sasha Cooke as the crusader leader Goffredo and Luca Pisaroni as the Saracen king Argante.

There will be no late seating until the intermission after Act I, and one will not want to miss a note.

The English Concert with conductor Harry Bicket perform Handel’s Rinaldo 2 p.m., Sunday in Carnegie Hall. carnegiehall.org