The Handel Festival Halle 2026 will take place from June 5 to 14. The festival will kick off with Handel's opera Rinaldo in a production by Walter Sutcliffe under the musical direction of Michael Hofstetter at the Halle Opera. At the Goethe-Theater Bad Lauchstädt, the lautten compagney BERLIN under Wolfgang Katschner and the renowned Milan puppet theater Carlo Colla e Figli will bring three Handel operas to the stage: Rinaldo, Ariodante and Giustino.
Other highlights of the program include concerts with international stars such as Bruno de Sá, Emmanuelle de Negri, Valer Sabadus, Reginald Mobley, Andrea Marcon with the La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, René Jacobs with the Kammerorchester Basel, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano as well as Holger Speck with the Vocalensemble Rastatt and Les Favorites. Of course, the Messiah will not be missing: The first year of the new European academy program Balthasar NOVA presents Handel's famous oratorio together with the Balthasar Neumann Choir and Orchestra under the direction of Lionel Sow.
The motto of the 2026 Handel Festival is "Mannsbilder. Heroes - rulers - heartbreakers". Artistic Director Florian Amort: "Masculinity is once again a hot topic in society - in politics, the media and culture. The myth of the strong, powerful, invulnerable man is experiencing a new boom: politicians of all stripes are staging themselves as leaders and warriors, influencers and self-appointed masculinity coaches are conjuring up a 'crisis of the man' - usually with the aim of cementing traditional power relations. The demand for equality is stylized as a threat in order to reinforce gender hierarchies in which women and queer people are considered 'different' but subordinate to men."
Galgenbergschlucht, location of the final concert of the Hädel Festival Halle © Photo: Thomas Ziegler
In the light of these discourses, the festival focuses on Handel's male figures: brave knights, vulnerable lovers and power-conscious rulers, emotional fighters and fragile heroes. For even in the Baroque era, masculinity was not a rigid concept. Handel's operas and oratorios show men caught between strength and weakness, between public expectation and inner turmoil. The 2026 Handel Festival invites us to take a fresh look at these historical role models - and to ask what they still tell us today: about power and emotion, about responsibility and vulnerability.
June 5 to 14, 2026
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