This work is both real and artificial. Handel began an opera of this title, drawing evidently from Racine’s Berenice, but abandoned it in 1732. Leo Duarte and his collaborators have had the intriguing idea of reconstructing it by commissioning entirely new recitative and inserting arias drawn from Handel’s work of the same era, in other words the composer at the peak of his opera writing career, just before he switched over to oratorio. The result is what contemporaries would have called a pasticcio, a confected collage of attractive items brought together for an occasion.
As an occasional piece it works very well – the arias included are mostly unfamiliar substitute or rejected numbers which more than deserve regular hearing – rather like suddenly getting access to a reserve collection of rarely seen Old Masters. There are arias of vigorous confrontation and lyrical reflection that stand with the best of the starry hits we know from Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo. But as a dramatic event, even though it is hard to judge from a concert performance, I have to wonder whether Handel’s doubts were not well founded. The plot may be a classic opera seria conflict between love and duty, but with Titus’ decision to prefer his duty as ruler of Rome to his love for Berenice already decided before the opera begins, there is little scope for dramatic development. Also, although there are plenty of subsidiary characters, there is not much in the way of developed subplot, always an essential element of Handel’s most successful operas.
The performances were, for the greater part, at a high technical and expressive level. Duarte’s highly physical direction ensured a very broad dynamic range from the excellent orchestra – muscular strings, sinuous woodwind lines, with especially mellifluous recorder playing, and an excellent balance with the soloists. Only the period brass experienced a few mishaps, perhaps attributable to the notorious unpredictability of the instruments.
Among the soloists there were no obvious weak links and some very impressive contributions particularly from Ciara Hendrick and Rachel Redmond as Berenice and Antiochus. They are the most interesting and conflicted characters, and Redmond especially exemplified in her dramatic representation the pain of being both Titus’ friend and rival in love. As Titus himself, Steffen Jespersen delivers a solid performance, despite some wayward intonation at times; but the role itself is somewhat becalmed and unanguished, even though the emperor’s situation is the centrepiece of the plot. Again this rather points to Handel’s wisdom in moving on to another project rather than pursuing this one through to a conclusion.
So while this was a memorable evening, and definitely deserving permanent capture on disc, I do wonder whether it will catch on as a regular addition to the Handelian operatic canon.
St George’s, Hanover Square
London Handel Festival/Opera Settecento
Libretto: Matteo Dalle Fratte, after Racine
Conductor: Leo Duarte
Cast includes: Edward Grint, Francis Gush, Ciara Hendrick, Steffen Jespersen, Rachel Redmond, Lucjia Varsic
3 hrs with interval