It is Handel’s most intense opera, a claustrophobic story of psychological collapse and wracked hearts that evolves through a cat’s cradle of emotional and mental freight.Despite the title, the main character is Bajazet, the Ottoman emperor imprisoned by Tamerlano, who rages furiously at the upstart shepherd, and who uses him as a footstool and makes eyes at his daughter, Asteria. She is covertly in love with Andronico, a Byzantine prince allied with Tamerlano; as well as the usual love intrigues we get an anguished portrait of father and daughter and an electrifying clash between two elemental potentates.Pierre Audi’s production first appeared at the baroque court theatre of Drottningholm; and this recreation (which goes to Amsterdam at the end of February) is equal to