Work: Imeneo

Historically informed baroque gestures and ballet additions: Handel's only operetta gets a rare airing and a musical makeover in Sigried T'Hooft's new production for Gottingen's International Handel Festival.

Imeneo (1740), Handel’s penultimate opera, is atypical on several fronts. It’s relatively short by Handel’s standards (three acts, under two hours of music); the plot is thin, but not as absurd or complicated as those of some of his other operas (there are no disguises, for example); the title role is composed for a bass; and the opera has a chorus which participates in the plot, rather than just