In spite of superb performances from the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and the two lead soloists, Steffani’s Niobe at the Concertgebouw offers too few inspired moments to make it truly memorable.
In 2008, conductor Thomas Hengelbrock rediscovered Niobe, Regina di Tebe, written in 1687 by the Venetian-born, German-based composer Agostino Steffani. Although now little remembered, Steffani was a world-famous composer in his day and a man of many talents who became a diplomat and bishop as well as being a musician.
