The most memorable operatic event of the year so far has been the Royal Opera’s mesmerising production of Handel’s Theodora back in January. So long almost unknown, this oratorio (it is not actually an opera) has increasingly come to notice through fully staged performances.
One of the principal singers in January was mezzo Joyce DiDonato and here she is again, heading an entirely different line-up of cast and orchestra. The recording was made live last year in Essen at the end of a European concert tour by Il Pomo d’Oro and its chief conductor, Maxim Emelyanychev.
It is no accident that this oratorio works so well on stage. Handel’s music establishes an atmosphere that is consistently as powerful as in the very best of his operas and though the pace is slow, it builds up a concentration and depth of feeling that are almost hypnotic.
All this is played to maximum effect by Emelyanychev and his period ensemble, even if the speeds sometimes feel a touch exaggerated or the rhythms unnecessarily trenchant. William Christie’s recording, so long a benchmark, sounds tastefully polite by comparison.
The most inspirational arias fall to Irene, a role which finds DiDonato in exceptionally radiant voice. Lisette Oropesa’s gleamingly bright Theodora and the Septimius of Michael Spyres, the latter racing to keep up with Emelyanychev’s fastest speeds, are more than a match for the competition on other recordings. Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian as Didymus and John Chest as Valens, though youthfully light of voice, complete a first-rate cast.
★★★★★
‘Handel: Theodora’ is released by Erato/Warner Classics
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