Dream a Dream: Charlotte Church in the Holy Land

The English National Opera first mounted David Alden's production of Ariodante, one of Handel's greatest masterpieces, in 1993. It met with unanimous critical and popular acclaim, and this 1996 revival features many of the leading singers from the original production. Ariodante is Handel's 1735 setting of an episode from Ariosto, in which the King of Scotland's daughter is treacherously accused of infidelity to her promised husband. The range of feelings provoked as the characters develop is caught in music of quite extraordinary emotional power, even by Handel's own exalted standards.

Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund leads the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Archora, Wagner's Prelude to Tristan and Isolde, and Sibelius' Seventh Symphony. In the first half, Julian Steckel performs Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1.