Color use contributes tremendously to what little drama there is. David Fielding s bright, handsome design is essentially the Vauxhall Gardens in the London of Handel s time. Its outdoors in doors rather anticipates the spirit of the poet Byron and his crowd amidst green fields and marble ruins. Like Cavalli and Gluck before him, Handel was a closet Romantic. Baroque music was slow yielding to even the outermost regions of ardor, though, even under Handel.
Nothing improves the undistinguished overture, which the video uses expeditiously for the credits.
There s even time for a nicely visual montage identifying each character in turn. This at least gives us a fighting chance to sort out who s who. The unassured or complete absence of trills denies us their particular coloration to the vocal. Unfortunately, her intonation is not firmly enough in place right off the mark to make the most of an otherwise auspicious start. When a composer churns out as much as Handel does, you might expect he d not infrequently be on autopilot.