We left at the interval...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday February 8 2015 Conductor: Christophe Rousset. Production: Pierre Audi. Sets and Costumes: Patrick Kinmonth. Lighting: Matthew Richardson. Tamerlano: Christophe Dumaux. Bajazete: Jeremy Ovenden. Asteria: Sophie Karthäuser. Andronico: Delphine Galou. Irene: Ann Hallenberg. Leone: Nathan Berg. Zaide: Caroline D’Haese. Les Talens Lyriques. Händel The last time I heard Tamerlano was in 2005, in concert, so I was glad to see it appear again in La Monnaie’s 2014-2015 schedule – staged, this time. Pierre Audi’s production, originally conceived for Drottningholm in 2000, is not traditional – I mean, it doesn’t attempt to reconstruct a period performance. But it is conservative to the point of austerity. “No fellatio this time," a friend noted at the interval. The bare boards are framed by a receding succession of grey panels, blueish or greenish, depending on the lighting, with simple pilasters, and mouldings picked out in gold. They provide multip...

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Sunday November 13 2005 Conductor: Christophe Rousset. Tamerlano: Bejun Mehta. Bajazet: Bruce Ford. Asteria: Sandrine Piau. Andronico: Patricia Bardon. Irene: Kristina Hammarström. Leone: Lars Arvidson. Les Talens Lyriques. If you’ve visited the Louvre, you may have seen the Galerie d’Apollon. It’s a magnificently-decorated royal gallery built for Louis XIV, precursor to and inspiration for the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. It houses a collection of sumptuous objets d’art in gold and silver, porphyry, jade, rock crystal, lapis lazuli and more, stretching back to the middle ages and often of saintly, royal or imperial provenance. Each one is different, they are all very precious, and each is its own perfect little world. The gallery came to mind as I sat in the Châtelet, a few hundred yards along the Seine, listening to Sunday’s performance of Händel’s Tamerlano . In what you might call a “deluxe” performance of a Händel opera, every number is like o...