Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras: Handel's Theodora

Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are bringing Handel's Theodora to the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities on Wednesday 18 November. It's a concert production, so you'll get the music without the full stage set, and it's part of a wider run at the centre that opens on 2 November and goes through to 19 November. If you're not around on the 18th, there are plenty of other dates to pick from across those three weeks.

Christophe Rousset is conducting, with Tom Guthrie directing. On the singing, you've got Alice Coote and Iestyn Davies taking the lead roles. It's a big ensemble to have in one room: the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists working together on one of Handel's more intimate, focused works. Theodora is a story about faith and sacrifice, and hearing it as a concert production keeps the focus on the singing and the score rather than the scenery.

There's a bit of local context to this one, too. The run is taking place at the newly opened Sohmen Concert Hall within the Schwarzman Centre, and it marks the start of a new relationship between the ensemble and the venue. It's the first stop of a long tour: from Oxford, the production travels to Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Lima, São Paulo, Paris, Rome and London. So, we're getting the first look at it before it heads off across South America and Europe.

If you've never seen Theodora before, it's a good place to start with Handel's oratorios. It's smaller and more personal than something like Messiah, and the concert format lets the voices do the heavy lifting. With the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists on it, you're in safe hands. The run at the Schwarzman Centre goes from 2 to 19 November, so you've got a few weeks to find a night that works for you.