The classical music world of Washington seems to have Baroque music on its mind. After plugging the Washington Early Music Festival in this week’s Classical Music Agenda, it is time to tell you about the two Baroque operas that were staged over the weekend. For its first production this summer, the Wolf Trap Opera Company is staging Telemann’s Orpheus, which I heard on Friday night. This opera, rediscovered only in the 1970s, combines a mostly German libretto with some pieces in Italian and French, the latter probably just left untranslated from the original libretto. It was adapted from a French libretto by Michel du Boulay (he was not the one who combined German with other languages, as the Post reviewer suggests), which uses the ancient Greek versions of the Orpheus legend selectively, most importantly adding the role of Orasia, Queen of Thrace, who loves Orpheus and causes a snake to bite his wife, Eurydice. By killing her rival, she hopes to win Orpheus, her court musician, for herself but it does not work out that way.

The cast is generally good but has one major standout performance. South African Soprano Bronwen Forbay gave a thrilling performance as Orasia, the villain who dies in what is, remarkably, a tragic suicide, given how nasty she is throughout the opera and that she swears to continue vexing Orpheus and Eurydice in the afterlife. This is the prima donna role, the character who dominates the first and third acts and who has incredible aria after incredible aria. Forbay sang very well in German and switched effortlessly into her rage arias, which are (European stereotypes, anyone?) usually in fiery Italian, like “Sù, mio core a la vendetta!” in Act I and “Vieni, o sdegno, e fuggi, Amor!” in Act III. It is a light voice in terms of flexibility, very accurate in terms of intonation, not perfect but very impressive in the melismatic sections, and with plenty of volume. Forbay also acted well, finding an effective mixture of venom and haughty grandeur.