Approaching Dixit Dominus Handel’s Dixit Dominusmeans affirming a deep conviction: the Baroque repertoire is not a frozen heritage, but a true theatre of emotions, a sonic laboratory where music is experienced as a physical, dramatic, and sensory event.

Composed in 1707, this dazzling work reveals a young and bold Handel, nourished by Italian exuberance and already driven by an irresistible theatrical instinct. The Dixit Dominus Dixit Dominus goes beyond the framework of sacred music to become a dramatic fresco, where biblical text turns into gesture, tension, movement, and light. This spectacular dimension lies at the heart of our approach and highlights the full modernity of a visionary Handel.

Composed in the same year, Christ lag in Todesbanden bears witness to the expressive power of the young Bach, already evident in his earliest cantatas. Alternating between monumental chorale, arias, and ensembles, the work combines vocal virtuosity with contrapuntal clarity. In dialogue with the Dixit Dominus, Dixit Dominusit offers another vision of the afterlife: more inward-looking, crossed by shadow and light, where the divine presence feels closer, almost human.

Between these two masterpieces, two more rarely performed works build luminous bridges: the motet Lobet den Herrn by the Cantor of Leipzig — presented here from a manuscript preserved at the Lyon Municipal Library — and the delicate Salve Regina for solo soprano by the young Handel.