Titus L’empereur with Opera Settecento

In early June I sang two performances of a reconstructed Handel Opera, Titus L’Empereur, with Opera Settecento. The performances were in Bernburg as part of the 2024 Halle Handel Festival, and the show was directed by Klara Kofen and under the baton of Leo Duarte. I sang the role of Arsete, an assistant to Antioch who begins as a faithful servant but turns on his master by the end of the show.

Handel had composed all of the arias, but many of them (mine included) were performed for the first time ever, as they had not made the final versions of other operas. My aria, ‘Splenda lieta al tuo disegno’, was originally composed as part of Rinaldo but was never actually performed. It was a huge honour to sing a Handel aria for the first time publicly, especially in the gorgeous Carl-Maria-von-Weber Theater.