Opera

Wandering chairs, lounge suits and paneled rooms; Christof Loy’s directorial signature is written right across this recording of Ariodante from Salzburg. Yet Handel’s 18th century is never entirely jettisoned, with the dancers and sometimes the Scottish Court appearing in period costumes. As so often in Loy’s work, an opera’s historical past and today’s present tense are in constant negotiation, with his strongly drawn characters caught between the two.

This then is no routine – how could it be