Theodora was Handel's last oratorio but one. He composed this large-scale work in just over a month in the summer of 1749 and it was premiered in March the following year in the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. Only Jephtha was to follow two years later. Handel valued Theodora very highly and stated that the chorus that ends act II, He saw the lovely youth, was the favourite among his own compositions.

Jochen Kowalski is one of the most charismatic and successful male altos of our time and has built up an unusually and wide-ranging and extensive repertoire. It is the dramatic quality of his voice which makes it special.

Mozart's fourth opera - written when he was only 14 - displays all the hallmarks of the fresh, inventive writing that was to flourish into extraordinary genius in his later works and, with a cast as good as this, The Royal Opera's production takes Mitridate, re di Ponto to the highest levels of operatic achievement. Based on a play by Jean Racine, it is a story of jealous love and political intrigue.

Actually, Jochen Kowalski wanted to become a heroic tenor. However, his mentor Marianne Kupfer, wife of stage director Harry Kupfer, made it clear to him during his audition at the Komische Oper Berlin – his principal stage until today – that: “Handel is your Wagner”. This was the beginning of the artist’s one-of- a-kind career, whose entire life had always been defined by the power of music, even in early childhood. Although he was initially apostrophised as Countertenor, he unperturbed emancipated himself as Altus, characterised by a higher level of vibrato. Therefore, Jochen Kowalski’s singing technique provides us with a realistic picture of what once enthused half of Europe: castrato chant.