Tír Na HiFi

^^ maybe Harry Bicket was being modest in his interview. Certainly even I could tell the difference between the orchestration here and that of Verdi's Otello, from a few weeks ago. Now you come to mention it, I do remember them showing a picture of the Bassett cornet used for this aria, and Barbara saying that sadly, she didn't get any one-on-one rehearsal time with him.

I'm interested, how often do the Met stage Handel, and do they use authentic instrumentation then? I will be seeing the Giulio Cesare at the end of April, maybe I should wait until then!

So far I think they have only performed Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare and Rodelinda at the MET, and even though William Christie, Trevor Pinnock and Harry Bicket have conducted they have not used period instruments.
James Levine has acknowledge that the MET seating nearly 4,000 people is too big for XVIII Century opera and even Rossini. He proposed building a new and smaller opera house for that purpose, but of course they said NO. And by them I mean the City of NY. But since the contiguous New York City Opera has disappeared maybe the MET can take their premises and move baroque opera there.