CLASSICAL& OPERA: Handel's Theodora is at Glyndebourne

Handel's Theodora is at Glyndebourne on 19, 22 & 25 Oct, then tours to Southampton, Oxford, Norwich, Plymouth, Woking and Manchester.

When is an opera not an opera?" the Riddler squealed. "When it's a late Handel oratorio," Batman answered, smugly. Strictly speaking, Theodora is an oratorio, yet that hasn't prevented iconoclastic director Peter Sellars from staging it as an opera.

An austere work, Theodora constitutes Handel's only hagiological setting, based on the life of a saint, as opposed to deriving from the Bible. Theodora was a Christian martyr who died in 304 AD in Antioch during one of Emperor Diocletian's persecutions.

But Sellars treats Theodora as a fable for our times - the Emperor is a dictator of a police state, who executes those who refuse to conform. Integral to Sellars' perspective is the emphasis on hand gesture, with the cast signalling throughout at moments when language itself is broken down and transmuted into pure sound.

But what about that pure sound itself? During the summer at Glyndebourne, Theodora was accompanied by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under William Christie. Now it's up to the modern instruments of GTO's orchestra. Can they cope? "Very much so," says Harry Bicket, who now takes over from Christie to wield the baton. "Many of our players are drawn from the Guildhall Strings so there's already a healthy body of string tone to build on. And this orchestra can certainly play in the Baroque style. It's going to sound different, but just as good."