Not quite heroic: Handel's Hercules

By Charlotte Valori, 06 March 2015

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Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 4 March 2015

Handel, Hercules

Harry Bicket, Conductor

Lucy Crowe, Iole

Alice Coote, Dejanira

James Gilchrist, Hyllus

Matthew Rose, Hercules

Choir of the English Concert

The English Concert

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Leonardo García-Alarcón's exhumation of Bembo's work proves a winner, in a hyper-quirky staging by Netia Jones with Julie Fuchs as the pick of the fine singers.

****1

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Beth Taylor gives the lows and highs of Handel's heroics an almighty, whole-body shakedown in Sinéad O'Neill’s new staging of Handel's Orlando.

***11

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A witty hotel Don Giovanni opens Blackwater Valley Festival

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Tom Creed’s witty production at Lismore Castle delivers strong singing, sharp comedy and lively orchestral playing, even if the opera’s darker supernatural edges are somewhat diminished.

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Charlotte Valori

Charlotte Valori read Classics at Christ Church, Oxford. As a classicist, her main interest is Greek tragedy and its reception by later cultures, which has led to a continuing passion for theatre and opera. Charlotte reviews for several online magazines, and won the Bachtrack Opera Award 2015 for Best Written English Review. Follow her on Twitter @operissima.

Not quite heroic: Handel's Hercules at the Barbican