From around the world: Munich. (International).(Opera Review)

Handelian opera has been a trademark of Peter Jonas's reign as Intendant at the Bavarian State Opera. The newest feather in the company's cap is a fully staged production of Saul an oratorio from 1738 (seen April 28). Full of dramatic situations and confrontations, rife with conflict, its main characters all emerging as larger than life, the work seems predestined for the stage. Handel may have changed venues, but his means of expression remained operatic.

In Christian Loy's staging, the curtain opens to reveal the interior of a typical early-eighteenth-century English church. Chorus members, dressed in period costumes, are seated in neatly raked pewrows facing the audience. At the front is a single row of chairs for the soloists, who enter in modern dress. Naturally, because they're portraying Saul's family, there are visible disagreements as to who should sit where. Lines of personal and political strife are already in place. The monarch is portrayed as a modern politician through and through, manic and jealous, insecure, ready to use any means whatever to retain his power. David, entering shyly with piano-vocal score in hand and with no place to sit, becomes at once a sympathetic figure. Idolized by the folk as well as by many in Saul's entourage and taken up at once by Saul's favorite son, Jonathan, this young hero's modesty enrages Saul. The ensuing paranoia ends up costing the monarch both throne and life.

Loy has approached his task with obvious respect for the oratorio form. He breaks down the boundary between the static/sacred and the operatic with great subtlety and enormous skill. A gradual transformation takes place, rigidity of form yielding to a flowing use of the entire "church." The chorus becomes entirely integrated into the proceedings, changing its costumes from act to act until in the ...