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The varied score features virtuoso trumpet fanfares, but also ardent poetry: the perfect piece for Christophe Rousset and his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques. The plot centres on the war hero Theseus who, however, finds himself embroiled not so much in military conflicts but romantic ones with Princess Aegle and the sorceress Medea.

The French director Marie-Eve Signeyrole stages the fall of Babylon under its infamous ruler Belshazzar. In her production, the Arnold Schoenberg Choir portrays no fewer than three hostile Middle Eastern peoples who are carried by music performed by Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L’Arpeggiata.

Carl Maria von Weber’s "Der Freischütz" delves deep into romantic worlds with a hunters’ chorus and a maiden’s wreath, woods and Wolf’s Glen, plus sinister forces and white roses that offer protection from evil.

In Vienna the musicians now celebrate the power of music with Handel’s "Alexander’s Feast". The ode to Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music, was written in 1736 and describes a banquet held by Alexander the Great at which jubilation at the victories in battle ultimately gives way to delight in the power of music.