Baroque opera shows vicious people can sometimes be happy — and we're glad they are

Visits by English Touring Opera are always to be looked forward to, but this autumn it has surpassed itself with three baroque works, two of them masterpieces and the third a fascinating rarity, all performed by casts of astonishingly high calibre, and produced helpfully, resourcefully, with simple elegant sets, which are all that is needed, though they probably cost a thousandth as much as the eye-catching splurges that we often see in London.

First up, anyway at the Arts Theatre Cambridge, was the rarity: Cavalli’s Jason (intelligent to translate the titles where possible, since all the operas are sung in English). Apparently, it was the 17th century’s most popular opera, though that must be hard to determine. In its full form it lasts four hours, so mercifully ETO cut it to half its length. Its central female figure being Medea, one expects a bloodbath; but actually what we saw was more comic than heroic-tragic, with a surprising number of characters emerging to sue vainly for Medea’s hand in marriage.