Even among the lofty company of Handel's other oratorios, "Belshazzar" is a stunner. Grandiose, intellectually ambitious and packed with music of astonishing beauty and variety, this is one of the ...

But as a fully-staged piece, as The Grange Festival’s director Michael Chance reminded us after Saturday’s performance, Handel’s story of the fall of Babylon, the triumph of the Persian leader Cyrus, ...

That Adelaide has only now experienced Belshazzar, Handel's mighty oratorio of the fall of Babylon, is not really surprising. The oratorios of Handel are demanding, and Messiah, the only one in ...

Cyrus the Great has been admired by many people, from the ancient Hebrews to the Greeks to Thomas Jefferson. When Cyrus conquered the Babylonians, he freed many enslaved people and returned the ...

A decade ago, the Berlin Staatsoper staged an all-star operatic version of this work from 1744, which later travelled to the Aix-en-Provence festival. William Christie and Les Arts Florissants have ...