Page 135 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

24 June 2019

Belshazzar @ The Grange

Festival, Northington

20, 22, 28 June, 4, 6 July 2019

by Melanie Eskenazi

published: 24 Jun 2019 in Reviews

Robert Murray
(Photo: Simon Annand)

After a deeply moving, finely sung Le nozze di Figaro and a gloriously staged, superbly

cast Falstaff, this production of one of Handel’s finest oratorios confirms The Grange
Festival as the star of the Summer’s country house offerings. This is a remarkable
achievement for a Festival in only its third year, and it’s revealing to look back at the
beginning, when Michael Chance took over amidst murmurs of ‘Oh dear, what does a singer

know about directing a festival?’ A great deal, it would appear, including how to attract
superb casts and programme with imagination.

Belshazzar is a challenge to stage, given its contrasts between licentious behaviour by the

Babylonian king and his followers, and the pious sobriety of the Jews and their leader.
Daniel Slater solves this problem brilliantly, making use of the theatre’s revolve to show the
two parts of the ‘tower of Babel’ – clearly based upon the painting of it by Pieter Breughel the
Elder – and managing the cast and chorus so that we are always involved with whichever

‘side’ happens to be presented.

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