Berio Sinfonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins

Titus L’Empéreur HWV A5 - (New Production)

Reconstruction of the opera fragment by G. F. Handel

If Handel were to attend a performance of this opera, he would certainly be surprised: “I never completed it!“ And he didn’t – only the overture and three scenes have come down us. Yet at this year’s Handel Festival you will be able to hear the complete opera of Titus l’Empereur – exclusively with music penned by Handel. The ensemble Opera Settecento and their musical director Leo Duarte realised this ambitious project in cooperation with Handel House, Halle. Handel and his resident librettist Giacomo Rossi modelled the plot closely on Jean Racine’s drama Bérénice before halting the work for pragmatic reasons. For this reason, the French tragedy has been used to complete the fragment. The newly created work begins with the original fragment, which is followed by two further acts with eight to ten numbers in the style of an 18th-century pasticcio.