Back to the Baroque master: Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival returns to Handel for 2026 with a new production of Handel's Floridante

Handel: Flavio - Rémy Brès-Feuillet (in bath), Yuriy Mynenko - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2023 (Photo: Clemens Manser)

Handel's Floridante is one of those opera more heard of or heard on disc rather than experienced in the theatre. The first modern performance, took place at the Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon in 1962 [see my article] and since then revivals have included Cambridge Handel Opera in 1989 and the Handel Festival, Halle in 1984 and then again in 2009.

Handel wrote it in 1721 with the great castrato Senesino in the cast. Winton Dean suggests that Handel was not completely engaged with the libretto. The previous season, Bononcini's Astarto had been a great success. In response, Handel temporarily abandoned his grand heroic style from Radamisto produced the previous year (and resumed in Giulio Cesare in 1723) and concentrated on graceful tunes, light accompaniments and something less learned and more crowd-pleasing. 

A success?

Well, Charles Burney certainly thought so: "I mention the slow songs in this opera [Floridante] particularly, as superior in every respect to those of Bononcini, who has frequently been extolled by his admirers for unrivalled excellence in airs of tenderness."

And audiences clearly agreed. Floridante received fifteen performances that first season, and was revived seven times the following season. It came back again in 1727 for two performances, and then seven in 1733. 24 is a respectable number of performances for an opera in Handel's lifetime, and we can add to this the eleven performances in Hamburg in 1723 (with German recitatives and arias in Italian).

Dramatically, however, the opera has limitations and Winton Dean places responsibility for this squarely in librettist Paolo Rolli's court. Rolli based the work on a late 17th century Venetian libretto, but barely kept anything but the bare bones. The result, in Dean's words, is full of obscurities and inconsistencies. But recent revivals of some of Handel's 'problem' operas have demonstrated that they can work on the modern stage.

Now audiences will get the chance to judge Floridante for themselves as Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival has announced that the centrepiece staging in 2026 will be Handel's Floridante. The festival will run from 4 to 13 September 2026 with performances in the Margravial Opera House, Bayreuth, along with other historic venues in the town. Floridante will be directed by the Festival's artistic director, Max Emanuel Cencic and Markellos Chryssicos conducts Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, the Festival's orchestra in residence for 2026.

This is the festival's second Handel production. In 2023, Cencic directed Handel's Flavio in an extravagantly theatrical production, see my review.

Floridante is being produced as a co-production with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and the International Handel Festival Karlsruhe, where it will be performed in 2027. Max Emanuel Cencic takes on the title role with Eva Zalenga (Rossane), Sonja Runje (Elmira), Bruno de Sá (Timante), Pavel Kudinov (Oronte), and Yannis François (Coralbo).

There are six performances of Floridante alongside a programme of concerts and recitals in the Margravial Opera House and other venues including the newly opened Friedrichsforum and the Palace Church.

Full details from the festival website.