Radamisto, English Touring Opera/Hackney Empire, review: authentic Handel done with straightforward good taste

For the past decade, English Touring Opera has tended to focus its autumn seasons on baroque music – oratorio as well as opera. The relatively modest forces required make this economically viable, but it isn’t a cynical policy: on the move from Durham to Exeter, ETO has delivered a solid body of work with integrity and competence, presenting a repertory underexposed outside the metropolis.

The current offering is Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas paired with some sacred music (to be reviewed later this month), and, as a centrepiece, Handel’s Radamisto.

Many Handel operas strike me as having something of the cookie-cutter about them, and I suspect that in the early 18th century, every composer worth his salt was churning out similar stuff, pretty indistinguishably. Originality was nobody’s aim; honouring the conventions was, and Radamisto certainly doesn’t intend to break any templates.

Written in 1720, it concerns – like Rodelinda and Tamerlano – the political tribulations and romantic confusions of ancient nobles living in a world where virtue struggles with vice.

Passages of recitative carry the plot forward, with six soloists expressing their formalised emotions in extended arias; there is one duet, one quartet and one full ensemble to mark the arbitrarily arranged happy ending. Any attempt to mine ambiguities or complexities is misguided: the point of such exercises wasn’t to create psychological drama but to provide skilled singers with opportunities to charm an urbane audience.