During Handel’s lifetime Ezio only received five performances, yet the work, which deals freely with an episode from the end of the Roman Empire, deserves to be rediscovered. This is now possible, using the Halle Handel Edition as a secure scholarly basis.

Many of Joseph Haydn's operas scarcely feature in the international operatic repertoire. This is also true of La fedeltà premiata (“Fidelity Rewarded”) of 1781, an opera semiseria in the pastoral idiom typical of the time, with a plot which is to all intents and purposes serious, yet interspersed with comic figures and scenes. The adventurous Zurich Opera House is staging the work at the beginning of the Haydn anniversary year, and has engaged director Jens-Daniel Herzog and conductor Adam Fischer, who is amongst the leading Haydn interpreters. This production, and one conducted by Trevor Pinnock at the Royal Academy of Music London, will use new performing material from the Complete Edition of Haydn's works. The first performances took place on 1 (Zurich) and 2 March 2009 (London).

The 150th anniversary of the composer Louis Spohr’s death (22 October) is marked by the Staatstheater Kassel, Kasseler Musiktage Festival and Bärenreiter publishers with concert performances of his opera Jessonda, which was first performed in Kassel in 1823. There will be three performances of this seldom-heard work, conducted by music director Patrik Ringborg. These take place on 25 October, 1 and 7 November and feature new performance materials from Bärenreiter.

The Handel anniversary year continues apace with three festival productions using newly-published volumes from the Halle Handel Edition: Schwetzingen is the first on 21 May with Ezio (director: Günter Krämer, conductor: Attilio Cremonesi), Halle follows on 5 June with Il Floridante (Vincent Boussard / Christopher Moulds) and Salzburg completes the trio beginning on 25 July with a new production of Handel’s last oratorio Theodora in the Großes Festspielhaus (Christof Loy / Ivor Bolton). There’s a particularly unusual contribution from the Leipzig Bach Festival: on 17 and 18 June, at the Kulturgut Ermlitz (near Leipzig), Georg Philipp Telemann’s arrangement of Handel’s Riccardo Primo will be presented for the first time using the recently-published volume in the Telemann Edition (Andreas Baumann / Michael Schönheit).

Superflumina is the title of Salvatore Sciarrino’s latest music theatre work, which receives its premiere on 20 May in the Mannheim Nationaltheater. It is set in the concourse of a large railway station: here, unnoticed by the anonymous masses passing by, the tragedy of a homeless woman unfolds. Andrea Schwalbach directs the production, and experienced Sciarrino interpreter Tito Ceccherini conducts the new score. Further performance dates: 28 May, 1 and 6 June and 1 July.

To coincide with Jonathan Harvey’s 70^th birthday, one of his major works is being performed: the church opera Passion and Resurrection is a musical form of venerating God, in the tradition of its medieval precursors, and also includes the audience or congregation.

With the new, extensive series L’Opéra francais, Bärenreiter is turning the spotlight on French 19^th century music theatre. The central musico-dramatic works in the various genres, including unjustly forgotten operas, from the period between the Revolution and the outbreak of World War I, will be re-evaluated in critical editions. The series begins with Adolphe Adam’s opera-comique jewel Le Toréador and Edouard Lalo’s operatic debut Fiesque (after Schiller) – performing materials for these two are already available – followed by Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Étoile and major works such as Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas and Werther by Jules Massenet. The team of musicologist-editors under the direction of Paul Prévost reads like a Who’s Who of specialist scholars in this research area. Star conductor Marc Minkowski has given an exclusive interview in [t]akte on the significance of this project and French 19^th century opera.