Ola Bell

An heroic story, based on historical events occurring on the Germanic fringes of the Roman Empire, Arminio is now being revived in a new and ravishing production by Parnassus Arts under their artistic director Max Emanuel Cencic: a combination with an unequalled track record in Handelian opera seria, as witnessed by their multiple-award-winning staging and recording of Alessandro (from 2012 to date). Countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic takes the title role of Arminio, surrounded by a superb cast featuring Layla Claire (Tusnelda), Ruxandra Donose (Ramise), Vince Yi (Sigismondo), Juan Sancho (Varo), Xavier Sabata (Tullio) and Petros Magoulas (Segeste).

Every child who ever learnt the recorder or played in a school orchestra will probably know the famous ‘Minuet’ included in the Overture, but they can be forgiven for knowing little else from the work since it is so rarely performed. That its premiere in London in 1737 was a failure had little to do with Handel’s score but more with a growing public indifference to Italian opera. The music, as seasoned Handelians will not need to be told, is of high quality (though not perhaps at once among his most alluring scores), and Antonio Salvis’s libretto, concerned with politics and romance, provides the composer with opportunity for lively duets and evocative ‘simile’ arias. The cast is strong, though not uniformly so, with soprano Julianne Baird in the title role.

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records.

The delightful, metaphorical “island in the Antipodes” is governed by a “council of women” who, in the manner of latter-day Amazons, have reversed the natural order of things by which power is assumed unequivocally by the males of the species.

Gioacchino Rossini wrote two kinds of comic opera. First there was the manic, almost farcial "opera buffa" (eg. THE BARBER OF SEVILLE). Then there was a kind of serio-comedy akin to the "dramma giocoso" of Mozart. IL TURCO IN ITALIA (1816) definitely falls in the latter category (as does LA CENERENTOLA). This little-known opera is a real gem. It is about a Muslim prince (Selim, sung by Michele Pertusi in fine voice) from Turkey and the comedy and conflict that ensue when he visits Italy. A clash of cultures ensues as the polygamous Selim tries to steal Don Geronio's young wife, Fiorilla (mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, singing a role written for soprano)…

Berenice is one of those slightly problematic operas which seem to work better in the theatre where the gender of the characters is (usually) more obvious. Here we have a pair of low voices, one singing a man and one a woman, and a pair of high voices similarly paired. Curtis has chosen a beautifully balanced cast. But it is one where the voices are not highly distinctive so that you sometimes have to concentrate to tell whether Berenice or Alessandro is singing, or Selene or Arsace. If you listen to the opera with the libretto these sort of problems disappear.