Coinciding with the 400th anniversary of the work, the Arriaga will offer a semi-staged concert version directed by Jean Tubéry, with the Namur Chamber Choir and Ensemble La Fenice, who specialise in Venetian baroque music, although the group’s repertoire includes music from all over Europe spanning over two centuries.

The cast includes such names as Hans Jorg Mammel, Caroline Weynants, Aurore Bucher, Luciana Manccini, Helen Cassano, Emmanuelle Halimi, Jean-Claude Sarragosse and Benoît Giaux. The performance is set for 5 October and will be followed on the 19th by Motezuma an opera by Vivaldi that was “rediscovered” just a few years ago. The stage director of the work, a three-act opera with a libretto by Alvise Giusti, will be Stefano Vizioli. This is a new co-production shared between four theatres: the San Carlo of Lisbon, Comunale of Ferrara, Comunale of Modena and Comunale of Piacenza.

Alan Curtis will conduct Il Complesso Barocco with a cast including Vito Priante, Theodora Baka, Mary-Ellen Nesi, Laura Cherici, Franziska Gotwald and Gemma Bertagnolli. On 12 November it is the turn of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under René Jacobs. The program features Haydn’s Symphony No. 92 in G Major, Gluck’s ballet Don Juan and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E flat Major, KV543.

The cycle will conclude with French baroque music from the “Port-Royal period”, including works by Charpentier and Lambert given by William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants. Music by composers from the French baroque is one of the specialities of Les Arts Florissants, one of the most prestigious early music ensembles in Europe and internationally, founded in 1979 by the harpsichordist and director William Christie.