Saul review – Purves didn’t just chew the scenery, he swallowed it whole

The London Handel festival opened with Arcangelo’s agile and elegant performance of the operatic oratorio. Christopher Purves dominated as the king, as David, Hugh Cutting’s voice was liquid honey

Oratorios tend to be more sober-minded affairs than operas, but not Handel’s Saul. Originally intended to prop up a faltering Italian opera season, its orchestral novelties included a carillon – a keyboard imitating chiming bells – to celebrate the victorious Israelite army, a harp for the shepherd boy David, three trombones for the famous Dead March and a set of supersized kettledrums borrowed for the occasion from the Tower of London. When it premiered in 1739 it was the longest music theatre work ever written in English.

Arcangelo, the London Handel festival’s principal ensemble in residence, seized on the music’s operatic intensity. Its founder Jonathan Cohen is one of the most expressive of Handelians with a keen ear for instrumental colour and a nose for drama. His pacing was urgent, though never excessively so, phrasing and dynamics were elegant and elastic, and the playing was outstanding (as you might expect for an orchestra packed with early music luminaries). An agile chorus of 30 sounded like double that number.

A tale of dynastic rivalry, the oratorio follows David’s victory over the Philistines, his conflict with the resentful monarch Saul and his dealings with the dysfunctional royal family, including a hinted-at same-sex relationship with the king’s son, Jonathan. There’s even a Hammer Horror summoning scene where the ghost of the prophet Samuel, raised by the ambisextrous Witch of Endor, predicts Saul’s downfall.

Christopher Purves, who has commanded the title role on stage, didn’t just chew the scenery here, he swallowed it whole, snarling at the heavens as his grip on reality ebbed away. His forbidding baritone was coffin black. As the otherworldly David, Hugh Cutting was the perfect foil, his voice dripping with liquid honey. Accompanied by Oliver Wass on baroque harp, Oh Lord, Whose Mercies Numberless was a highlight.

Jessica Cale’s high-flying lyricism suited the dewy-eyed Michal, contrasting nicely with Emőke Baráth’s spitfire soprano as the haughty Merab. Linard Vrielink displayed a bright, flamboyant tenor, casting long, lingering looks as the smitten Jonathan. If a few too many words were lost in the resonant acoustic, it was a small price to pay.

• The London Handel festival continues until 28 March.