★★★★☆
If a trip to Paris to hear Ariodante at the Palais Garnier, starring the rising mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, was out of the question, then on paper this Wigmore Hall concert looked like the next best thing. Better, the Handel sceptics might argue. Rather than nearly four hours of da capo arias, so their logic might go, the same musical forces (two lead singers, the English Concert and conductor Harry Bicket) had cherry-picked some of the best arias from the three-act opera, which is running in Paris until May 20, to create a programme half the length.
It turned out to be a welcome chance to hear the Ariodante team. Oh yes, did I mention there were strikes in France? The new production’s first night
