Teseo

One of Georg Friedrich Handel's early operas, Teseo (1713) is structurally unusual: adapted into Italian from a French libretto set nearly four decades earlier by Jean-Baptiste Lully, it retains the five-act format common to Parisian tragédie lyrique. The narrative is a fairly typical, and rather silly, romantic quartet involving the Athenian hero Theseus (i.e., Teseo), the maiden Agilea whom he loves, King Egeo, who plans to marry Agilea, and the sorceress Medea, who desires Teseo (and the throne of Athens) for herself. Presented here in a 2004 staging at the Schlosstheater Neues Palais in Potsdam, the score by the original-instrument orchestra Lautten Compagney Berlin under Wolfgang Katschner is rendered in a lively if somewhat stiff reading. But there are serious deficiencies in singing and direction: of the principals only Maria Riccarda Wesseling, as the fiery Medea, stands out (although Sharon Rostorf-Zamir manages some lovely moments as Agilea). The three countertenors (Jacek Laszczkowski and Martin Wolfel as Teseo and Egeo, and Thomas Diestler in the secondary role of Arcane) are variable, with Diestler's delivery of one aria—while his beloved Clizia is supposedly servicing him under bedcovers—emerging as the worst instance of crass comic staging on display. Presented with Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo sound, DVD extras include a synopsis and the option of superimposing the printed score over the images. Overall, this performance doesn't give this neglected opera its full due. Optional. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)