There is no such thing as a neglected Handel opera these days, but Arminio comes pretty close. On this evidence it is hard to see why. The setting is dramatic, the plot darkly compelling, the hero one of the great icons of German history and the score contains occasional top-notch Handel. This new production, in the Royal Opera’s smaller downstairs theatre, brings Arminio back to Covent Garden, where it was premiered in 1737.
Staging and music are mostly in the hands of members of the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Artists programme. Past projects of this kind have sometimes struggled to find their stride, but that can’t be said this time. There is impressively confident artistic smartness from the start in Mathilda du Tillieul McNicol’s direction and Noemi Daboczi’s sets and costumes. They give the opera’s military and political settings contemporary zing without ripping up its classical roots. The set initially evokes a hospital ward, and the curtains move back and forth to keep the narrative pace admirably brisk, which is not easy in Handel.
