R.B. Schlather’s Handel series at Hudson Hall in upstate New York continues with a rare staging of his final opera, Deidamia, beginning a six-performance run on 17 April.

I suspect it was selected before all the hubbub arose over Christopher Nolan’s epic film Odyssey, but it does feature a pre-Trojan War Ulysses, to be portrayed by the superb American countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen.

Though financial reverses compelled Handel to forever renounce opera and turn to oratorio, 1741’s Deidamia’s lightweight intrigues contain some very fine music.

Just four days later, Juilliard Opera returns to Agrippina, a work it performed ten years ago at Alice Tully Hall directed by Louisa Proske (who debuted at the Met with Macbeth on Opening Night 22 September). Its impressive cast included Samantha Hankey, Avery Amereau, Jakob Józef Orliński, and Cody Quattlebaum.

Let’s hope that history repeats itself with another promising cast in the school’s 2027 edition, conducted by David Beikovski and directed by Katherine M. Carter.

By the way, Orliński who has been conspicuously absent from New York since his poorly received Met debut in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice returns in December for a MasterVoices all-Handel concert with Erin Morley, his leading lady at the Met.

Four days after Agrippina opens, The English Concert’s annual U.S. Handel tour begins in Berkeley with Alessandro, Harry Bicket again conducting. After a concert in Omaha, the final stop is once again Carnegie Hall on 2 May.

Alessandro was the first of the five operas Handel wrote for dueling divas Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni. They seem to be enjoying a brief heyday as the last, Tolomeo, was revived this summer by Philharmonia Baroque, while Les Arts Florissants tours Europe next month with yet another—Riccardo Primo featuring Hugh Cutting (who will sing Tassile in Alessandro) in the title role.

It’s great that The English Concert, which has been sticking to Handel’s best-known works, will be embracing the seldom-done Alessandro which, despite an unusually silly plot, contains some extraordinary arias for its central trio, sung on this tour by Christophe Dumaux, Joélle Harvey and a new name as Rossane—Australian mezzo soprano Xenia Puskarz Thomas.

She will be coming to Alessandro just after performing Siegrune in the new Salzburg Easter Festival staging of Die Walküre!

By the way, Deidamia, Agrippina, and Alessandro as well as the Morley-Orliński concert will all be accompanied by original-instrument ensembles!