Susanna

Susanna is one of Handel’s lesser-known oratorios. But it’s one for our time, with depressingly familiar themes of sexual assault by those in power, corruption, and the fickleness of public opinion. Susanna rejects the unwelcome attention of two lascivious elders who spy on her while she bathes alone. In retaliation, they concoct false charges of adultery against her that bring the threat of execution.

Thanks to the intervention of Daniel, her name is cleared and they in turn are sentenced to death. Like Theodora, another late masterpiece, its mood is sometimes contemplative, but interspersed with comedy and a gripping court scene that thrilled audiences of Handel’s time and will leap off the page with this first-class cast.