An unusual staging of Handel arias and duets takes us back to an 18th-century tradition, finds Nicola Lisle

Max Hoehn, artistic director of new company Isle of Noise, is conjuring up a rather interesting image of singers arriving in 18th-century London “with a suitcase of arias”. “They wouldn’t care about the story, they would just have a series of arias dramatised into different emotional states,” he says. “And they would just do them, and the story would somehow fit around that.”

It was this that inspired Max to create the stage show Handel Furioso, a collection of arias and duets from Handel’s operas and oratorios, woven around a very simple ‘boy meets girl’ storyline, which follows a couple’s life together from childhood to old age.

The piece premiered as a half-hour, fully-staged production at Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Opera Festival in East London, and now comes to the Sheldonian Theatre in an expanded version.

“I used arias and duets that I liked and that are quite rare, mixed in with numbers that people already knew,” explains Max. “This time we’re doing about 70 minutes, but it’s still pretty intense and we can pack a lot into the time.” Handel Furioso encompasses the aims of Isle of Noise, which exists to create new work from existing repertoire and move opera away from its traditional settings.

“Opera at the moment I think is quite narrowly defined,” Max says. “It’s something you go and see in a proscenium arch theatre, lasts four hours and has three acts. It struck me that it would be better to do something on a smaller scale.

“Our first venue in London was a warehouse space, so the Sheldonian is quite different, but with a similar intimacy and similar configuration. “It’s also exciting because I think drama really works in the Sheldonian. It’s not just a concert venue. We’re lucky that we’re being allowed to stage something there. It’s quite unusual.”

Another of Max’s aims with the new company is to provide a platform for talented young singers. Handel Furioso features mezzo soprano Anna Starushkevych, winner of the 2012 Handel Singing Competition, and soprano Robyn Allegra Parton, a Kathleen Ferrier Award finalist in 2012 and winner of Garsington Opera’s Helen Clarke award. Completing the line-up is Julian Perkins conducting chamber ensemble Sounds Baroque.

Max’s earliest directing experiences were here at Oxford, where he read History, graduating from Queen’s in 2010 and going on to work with Zurich Opera House, Glyndebourne and the Mariinsky. So the Sheldonian is familiar territory.

“I staged The Marriage of Figaro there in 2009 as a student, so I got to know the venue well. “I directed both opera and theatre, and I acted a lot. I also did some singing for a couple of terms, which was very useful. It’s a great training ground. You learn by doing rather than being trained in a particular method. So I learned by doing, by directing singers. There are some very good singers here — the choral tradition is very strong.”

Now he is looking forward to returning to the Sheldonian, and is excited about the theatre’s connections with Handel. “His oratorio Athalia received its world premiere here in 1733, so that makes it a bit special.”

  • Handel Furioso
  • Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
  • Thursday, October 31
  • Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com