Arizona Bach Festival - Lidarti's Oratorio "Esther" - Scottsdale, March 2026
The Arizona Bach Festival brings superb musicians from around the world each year to join with local artists in presenting the music of Bach and his contemporaries. On March 1, the Festival presents the Arizona premiere of Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti's oratorio Esther, the only late Baroque oratorio in the Jewish tradition. This performance features Dutch soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg in the title role as well as Phoenix favorites Nina Cole Garguilo and Paul Nicosia along with the Festival Orchestra and Choir, all under the direction of Scott Youngs, Festival Music Director.
The work dates from 1774, and was commissioned by the Portuguese Jewish Synagogue of Amsterdam. Performed in Hebrew, the work was composed by Lidarti using a libretto by Venetian Rabbi Jacob Saraval. The work was lost until 1997 when it was discovered by a Cambridge scholar and authenticated by Israel Adler, a musicologist of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. It is an exemplary work of 18th century art music in Hebrew.
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