London audiences cheered the premiere of Handel’s Ottone in 1723, and no wonder. Opera serioso was in vogue, and Ottone ticked all of the boxes for that style: power struggles, mistaken identities, ...

Julia Agrippina or Agrippina the Younger was born November 6th in the year 15 C.E. Among classists, she was considered the most powerful and ruthless women of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and yet many ...

Although better known today for his concertos, in his own lifetime Antonio Vivaldi was just as famous for his operas of which he claimed to have written ninety-four. Most of these are now lost, but a ...

One explanation for Ottone‘s neglect in modern times must be its dramatic inertia, and yet so complicated is the synopsis in English Touring Opera‘s programme that watching it you can’t help but ...

A beloved regular of concert hall, radio and recording, the music of Vivaldi has more or less failed to find its way into the contemporary opera house. If we are to believe his own claims, the ...

Haydn’s Life On The Moon is about men behaving badly, and how they get their comeuppance. Wealthy widower Buonafede has a sexual taste for “rough pleasures.” He prevents the two women in his household ...

Despite ranking during his lifetime as one of Handel’s most successful operas - a favourite vehicle for star sopranos and castrati - Ottone has enjoyed relatively few modern revivals and failed to ...

Cencic/Snouffer/Hallenberg/Kudinov/Sabata/Starushkevich/Il Pomo d’Oro/Petrou (Decca) Once again, Max Emanuel Cencic lends his ripe countertenor to the title role of ...

Christof Loy digs for psychological depth in ENO’s time-shifting new Puccini production, while English Touring Opera’s autumn Handelfest gets off to a sparkling start A huge painted stage curtain ...

Jolting the audience firmly out of default baroque Handel mode, the overture was pure Vivaldi; a sparring match between two solo violins set up a dynamic tension within the orchestra that persisted ...