In between writing the operas Poro and Ezio, based on libretti by Metastasio, which was unusual for Handel despite the Italian’s being the foremost librettist of the age, the composer started another, Titus l’Empereur towards the end of 1731. The author of its libretto is unknown, though the plot – loosely based on Roman history, and adapted from a play by Jean Racine – puts one in mind of another, slightly later, Metastasio text, La clemenza di Tito, which did service for so many composers, at least down to Mozart in 1791. The drama doesn’t cover exactly the same episode of the Emperor’s great act of generosity in forgiving his would-be assassins. But it bears a tangential relation to it insofar as it deals with his magnanimous renunciation of his intended marriage to Berenice because the republican-minded Roman people disapprove of the match with a foreign princess, just as he gives up Vitellia in the Metastasian drama. (Incidentally, this Berenice is not the same figure as the subject of Handel’s later opera of 1736.)
Handel only completed the Overture (reused in Ezio) and a few numbers before abandoning the work for unknown reasons. Leo Duarte has overseen its completion by drawing upon arias from the composer’s less well-known operas, principally prior to 1732, or substitute numbers which Handel provided for revivals of more famous operas to suit new singers but are usually not now included when these operas are performed today. Duarte sensibly resists, therefore, the temptation to collate an assembly of Handel’s ‘top hits’, even if that means there are few musical corkers in the realised score. Pierre-Antoine Reinoult composed the recitatives (of which two are accompagnato, though I think these were adapted from Handel’s music elsewhere); and, as the libretto doesn’t survive, Matteo Dalle Fratte created a suitably versified Italian text in the manner of an opera seria based on Racine’s play. (The English translation in the programme looked like a somewhat garbled, AI-generated version of 18th century English in places, making it somewhat difficult to follow. At least the composition of the missing music wasn’t left to AI to riff on the Handelian style.) The result is rather like the type of pasticcio opera which Handel himself put together several times in the 1730s, using his own and others’ music to create a new patchwork sort of opera. This was its premiere in London, having been staged at Halle’s Handel Festival in 2024.
Duarte conducted the work here in a spirited performance, his physically vivacious direction from the music stand instilling the players of Opera Settecento with a rhythmical alacrity, if not quite as ebullient as their previous appearances at the London Handel Festival (Duarte’s realisation of another operatic fragment, Fernando, remains vividly in the memory). Although we were deprived of Duarte’s own virtuosic playing on the oboe, two other colleagues took that place in the ensemble, as well as on recorders; two horns in a few numbers were less secure. With a sombre ending for the work – marking the emotional tragedy of Titus and Berenice’s separation instead of hailing the political triumph of his selflessness – this account wound down to a well-paced, solemn conclusion in the minor key, in a trio taken from Imeneo and the final coro from Tamerlano.
Steffen Jespersen’s Titus was vocally tense, particularly in the relatively high countertenor given to the part, an effusive, not pristine, tone hinting at the Emperor’s inner turmoil. Where Rachel Redmond offered a controlled sparkle and charm for Berenice, if somewhat foursquare coloratura, Ciara Hendrick provided admirable flair and versatility in the part of her lover Antiochus. Hendrick charted his switching between despair at the prospect of losing Berenice forever when it seems that she will be married to Titus; hope that Titus’s renunciation will free her for himself; and disappointment again once it becomes clear that Berenice’s affection for the Emperor is sincere. The shadowy, moody colours of her lower range revealed a close engagement with those volatile feelings.
Notable among the smaller roles was Edward Grint’s solid performance as the tribune Oldauro – brimming over with the pride of his authority on behalf of the Romans, alluded to in the recitative that precedes his first aria, and more temperately assertive in his second. Lucija Varsic brought a cool, measured character to the didactic arias of Dalinda, Berenice’s confidante, while Hugo Hymas and Francis Gush’s unobtrusive but articulate interpretations soberly embodied the roles of advisors to Titus and Antiochus, respectively Paolino and Arsete. Vocal and instrumental performances breathed life into what might otherwise have been a dry piece of musicological detective work.
Curtis Rogers
Titus l’Empereur
Composer: George Frideric Handel
Libretto: Anonymous, after Jean Racine’s Bérénice, recreated by Matteo Dalle Fratte
Cast:
Titus – Steffen Jespersen; Berenice – Rachel Redmond; Antioco – Ciara Hendrick; Paolino – Hugo Hymas; Dalinda – Lucija Varsic; Oldauro – Edward Grint; Arsete – Francis Gush
Opera Settecento; Conductor – Leo Duarte
St George’s Church, Hanover Square, London, Thursday 5 March 2026
Top image: Passing Through the Arch of Titus on the Via Sacra, Rome by Oswald Achenbach (1891) [Source: WikiArt]