The Cambridge Handel Opera Company has presented a delightful staging of Handel's mid-career novelty operetta Imeneo at the Festival Theatre, Cambridge Buddhist Centre. Directed by Guido Martin-Brandis, the production captures the self-referential charm of a piece that sets up operatic conventions only to knock them down.
Though often compared to Mozart's Così fan tutte due to its two pairs of young lovers, Imeneo is more akin to A Midsummer Night's Dream in its playful, meta-theatrical nature. Composed in the 1740s when Italian opera was falling out of fashion, the work is a mischievous, end-of-term exercise that eschews cynicism for humour at opera's own expense.
The staging features a simple set of Ionic columns and an 18th-century fantasy of topiary and trellis, with an arbour dripping with wisteria that winks at Bridgerton. The plot sees pirate-kidnappers dispatched within the first five minutes, leaving only the question of whether Rosmene will choose gratitude by marrying her rescuer Imeneo or fidelity by staying with her lover Tirinto. Handel spins this out with a sub-plot involving Rosmene's sister Clomiri and father Argenio, leading to an ending that separates and unites all the 'wrong' people.
Music director Julian Perkins conducts from the harpsichord on stage, with the musicians drawn into the action. Characters make asides to them, and the double bass even comments. The fourth wall is broken with the help of Trui Malten's articulate lighting design, while a chair, gilded picture frames and a pair of hats are used with endless invention. The cast balances Handel's cocktail of artifice and sincerity beautifully, with Ellie Neate's vibrant Rosmene, Lisa Dafydd's captivating Clomiri, Bethany Horak-Hallett's glossy mezzo, Timothy Nelson's handsome baritone, and Trevor Eliot Bowes's irrepressible comic patriarch.
Though the orchestra was not quite with Perkins on opening night, with sagging violins and timid entries, the superb cast ensured no fear. Handel's operatic afterthought scrubs up well as the main event.
