The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra will perform with special guest Japanese soprano Yukie Sato in her highly anticipated Australian debut for the next concert series Handel’s House. Showcasing her technical skill, innate musicality and natural charisma, Sato will perform a program of Handel’s most cherished arias. The concerts will take place at Sydney’s City Recital Hall from 30 August – 7 September, Brisbane’s Queensland Performing Arts Centre on 10 September, and the Melbourne Recital Centre from 12 – 15 September.

In a rare opportunity to see the artist perform outside her native Japan, Yukie Sato will bring to life a program of dramatic arias by the German-British Baroque composer Handel, perfectly befitting her signature theatricality, emotional intensity and dazzling voice. Exploring themes of love, angst and revenge characteristic of Handel’s timeless operas, program highlights include ‘Ombre pallide’ and ‘Tornami a vagheggiar’ from the much-loved Alcina. Composed for Handel’s first season at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London in 1735, and introducing English audiences at the time to Italian opera, it tells the story of a knight Ruggiero, who becomes entangled with two sorceresses—the sisters Alcina and Morgana—on Alcina’s enchanted island.