Performer: Sherezade Panthaki

Once again, the BEMF brings a Baroque opera back to life. Reinhard Keiser’s 1705 Octavia is exceptionally well sung, adroitly staged, designed and danced, with impeccable musicianship.

Dancers tip-toed in stately procession, while alternately molding into aggressive gnarled warriors, images familiar from amphorae; they presage a clash of forces of destruction, the unfolding of a love story, and a sorcerer’s ravenous desire for control.