Performer: Arianna Vendittelli

One of Handel's lesser operas receives a deluxe concert performance at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, with Il Pomo d'Oro and a fine array of singers. 

In the Bucharest performance, the individual vocal contributions were consistently good, with some really standing out.

Why is Handel's wonderful oratorio Alexander Balus so rarely performed?  A performance at Herzfeld am Harz, as part of the Göttingen Handel festival, was musically splendid, despite cuts.

Elena Barbalich's mis-en-scene for Le nozze di Figaro in Turin seemed a swirling game of Chinese boxes, but the vocal performances were full of vitality. 

Accademia Bizantinas und Dantones Serenata-Aufführung eines alten Meisters schrammte nur hauchknapp an einer Krönung vorbei, an der selbst Oratorienliebhaber Thomas Bernhard sicher seine Freude gehabt hätte.