Artiste: Jud Perry

Handel's Opera Lotario is the centrepiece for this year's Göttingen Handel festival, receiving warm acclaim on its opening night.

"Grab ’em by the throat and never let ’em go!" goes the famous quote by legendary Hollywood director Billy Wilder – Sunset Boulevard, Some like it Hot, and Double Indemnity among his masterpieces – who regularly dispensed stellar advice to aspiring, young writers. Unlike good screenwriting, opera’s blood and thunder decree doesn’t need much coaching to bare its jugular.

Laurent Pelly's production of Giulio Cesare is a play of references to antiquity, heroism and myth. However, it does not thrill.