From Paris to Venice, from Brno to Basel, the baroque news brings rediscoveries, major figures and European stages into dialogue: Antonia Bembo enters the repertory of the Paris Opera, Domenico Scarlatti is reborn in Venice, while Handel and Bach continue to nourish the spring festivals. 
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Antonia Bembo’s Ercole amante at the Paris Opera
Despite the cancellation of the opening night on 28 May because of a strike, Ercole amante, the opera by the composer Antonia Bembo, received its first Paris performance the following day at the Opéra Bastille. Composed in 1707 to Francesco Buti’s libretto, already set to music by Francesco Cavalli for the Ercole amante commissioned for the wedding of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Austria, the work now enters the repertory of the Paris Opera in a staging by Netia Jones, conducted by Leonardo García-Alarcón.
With Andreas Wolf, Ana Vieira Leite, Julie Fuchs, the Cappella Mediterranea, Namur Chamber Choir and Leonardo García-Alarcón.
Domenico Scarlatti’s Tetide in Sciro in Venice
At the Scuola Grande dei Carmini in Venice, Liesl Odenweller and the Venice Music Project gave a concert performance of Tetide in Sciro, a rare three-act opera by Domenico Scarlatti, first performed in Rome in 1712. This modern Venetian premiere is the result of two years of research and analysis centred on the manuscript preserved in Venice, the only complete source of the work to have come down to us.
With Liesl Odenweller and the Venice Music Project.
Raphaël Pichon on Bach’s Footsteps in northern Germany
Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon celebrated the ensemble’s twentieth anniversary with Bach’s Mass in B minor, performed in Lübeck Cathedral to close Les Chemins de Bach 2026 (“Bach’s Footsteps”). After two weeks of walking, encounters and moments shared with the public, the musical itinerary connected several places in northern Germany, including Wolfenbüttel, Lüneburg and Lübeck, cities that played an important role in the young Bach’s formation and in the musical history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
With the Pygmalion Choir and Orchestra and Raphaël Pichon.
Handel’s Agrippina with Collegium 1704 in Brno
After Alcina and The Marriage of Figaro, Václav Luks and Collegium 1704 returned to the audience of the Brno Opera with Handel’s Agrippina, given at the Janáček Theatre in a highly Art Deco staging by Martin Glaser. First performed on 11 April 2026, the production completed its run at the end of May, with an audiovisual recording made on 30 and 31 May for Arte and Czech Television.
With Collegium 1704 and Václav Luks.
Ariodante and La Cetra in Basel
La Cetra Barockorchester Basel gave Handel’s Ariodante in concert version at the Stadtcasino Basel. Led by Magdalena Kožená in the title role, this production forms part of a European tour taking in, among other cities, Vienna, Oviedo, Madrid, Paris and Halle.
With Magdalena Kožená, Erika Baikoff, Christophe Dumaux, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel and Andrea Marcon.
Handel and Concentus Musicus Wien in Melk
In the imposing setting of the abbey church in Melk, Concentus Musicus Wien opened the 2026 International Baroque Days at Melk Abbey with Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. Under the direction of Stefan Gottfried, the oratorio HWV 46a unfolded in the distinctive acoustic of the religious building founded in the eleventh century.
With Giulia Semenzato, Patricia Nolz, Mara Gaudenzi, Michael Schade, Concentus Musicus Wien and Stefan Gottfried.
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