Handel's Tamerlano Opera

In Handel’s most intensely psychological opera, paternal heartache, royal status, thwarted love and frustrated passion collide to devastating effect. The fallen Emperor Bajazet cannot come to terms with his humiliation – nor can he let his daughter Asteria fall into the hands of his presumptuous victor, Tamerlano. Asteria loves Andronico, but his love for her is paralysed by his duty to his ally, her father’s conqueror. Familial love clashing with proud hatred of an enemy has tragic consequences. Can resolution ever be found?

An opera that probes dilemmas of loyalty, identity, family and yearning is especially apt for our own continued state of uncertainty. Handel’s masterly score absorbs us, with music of spellbinding beauty and expressiveness, in the drama’s continually tightening tension of conflicting demands. And as so often in Handel, the oppressed and seemingly slighted women emerge as the true heroes of the action.

In the weeks before the first performance, Cambridge Handel Opera offers a second series of Handel’s Green Room, three online discussions of aspects of the opera and the production.