It really has very much to do with what we were just discussing. Since you mention René, he was one of the five countertenors I used in a single opera, Cavalli’s Erismena, which was certainly a record at the time, and for all I know may well still be! But people like you are beginning to notice that I don’t use them much any more and let me say that’s not simply just my choice. One of the reasons I’m using fewer is that the good ones are just too busy. But having said that I must also admit that I’m increasingly in favour of mezzos and contraltos especially. The soprano voice was never an option, because I don’t believe in the idea of male sopranos. You don’t arrive at a beautiful soprano register without being castrated. The countertenor voice is flexible enough to attain a note or two, say, above the range Handel gave Senesino, but I imagine he was quite capable of singing an F or F sharp, although Handel never wrote above an E for him. The problem is that they don’t have the low register that Senesino had. They can’t do strong coloratura in the lower register and therefore countertenors are not an ideal solution for the Senesino roles. I think we have to find a female substitute. René has done a nice article about this problem of blending these low chest notes with the higher register and increasingly there are women who can do this. There used to be really no contraltos left ‘ it had become a non-existent voice type. When I first heard Caterina Calvi I encouraged her strongly, because she seemed to me to be a true contralto. Shortly after others emerged who are true contraltos ‘ among them Sara Mingardo and Sonia Prina. And I think that is the solution for these Senesino roles, a woman who has not only the range, but also the strength and the coloratura, the brilliance and heroic quality. All of these things are hard to find. But I’m still open to using countertenors in Handel and I believe we should be open to everything, as Handel was. He worked with countertenors and all kinds of voices. But he had very high standards, so as a result of those high standards at the time most of his principal singers were Italians and many of them were castrati.

Handel worked with countertenors and all kinds of voices. But he had very high standards, so as a result of those high standards at the time most of his principal singers were Italians and many of them were castrati

You’ve now done operas that span the whole of Handel’s career. One of the things that seems striking to me is how relatively little Handel developed stylistically as an opera composer. With those first operas like Rodrigo composed in Italy he seems to quite suddenly arrive as a fully-fledged opera composer. How far do you think this true?

I used to think that the early works were the best. I still think it’s amazing just not only how many ideas he had as a young man, but how fully developed, personal and rich those ideas were. However, he did continue to develop and, like many other composers, at the time of Rodrigo he was still writing mostly short arias. By the time of Radamisto, just a decade later, he was writing much longer arias. And it’s very interesting to compare the same aria he used in both operas. The opening tenor aria for Giuliano in Rodrigo was rewritten for Tiridate in Radamisto in the original version. The aria is transformed; there’s a trumpet which the Rodrigo aria doesn’t have and he also lengthened it and made it much more of a virtuoso piece. He also introduces more contrast and in short it’s a much richer and more fully developed aria and a better piece. There are quite a few examples of this in Handel. There are also, however, in the later works instances where he re-used something almost without change. Of course, there were times when Handel didn’t have the time or inspiration to change things, but when he did he shows us that he was continuing to develop and in addition to increasing the length of arias and formal complexity, there is also a slight change of style in that he’s more capable later of doing the same sort of light piece as Bononcini, so keeping up with the competition. He’s also capable of things that are at the same time heroic and modern, almost proto-Classical, like the ‘Scoglio’ aria from Scipione, which ends an act and is a magnificent piece. If you hear that out of context and you know Italian music, you wouldn’t first think of Handel. Is this Vinci’ Who is this’ But he didn’t choose to keep up with fashion just for the sake of it. Handel knew his own worth and he knew that his best arias were better than anyone else’s, so he wasn’t about to completely change his style. He knew that the things he did in Italy when he was a young man were good and that they were worth continuing to re-use. So he can be seen as a conservative, but in the best sense.