Opera2Day - The Opera Circus 2026

Send in the Gods

Handel, gods, aerialists, a travelling circus, and a dragon: The Opera Circus was never going to be an ordinary show! It was een groot plezier to rejoin my friends at Opera2Day, touring the Netherlands as Armato, God of War, in their exuberant collaboration with the Netherlands Bach Society.

The show was a celebration of Baroque spectacle and the sheer craft of performance. Nothing was hidden: flyers, ropes, wind machines and stage machinery were all part of the action, alongside five extraordinary circus performers and three singers. As the evening unfolded, a miniature Baroque theatre emerged onstage, a lovely reminder that the desire to astonish an audience is hardly a modern invention.

Armato, built from some of Handel’s greatest operatic music, gave me plenty to get my teeth into: rage, rivalry and swagger, alongside some unexpectedly tender moments. After so many performances on the road, our little company of eight became a proper travelling family, acquiring a broken toe and a dislocated shoulder along the way. Apparently life in the circus really does come with occupational hazards.

Dank jullie wel to everyone who ran away with the circus with us. Here are a few of the responses to the show:

“James Hall was vocally more focused throughout and dialled up the melodrama to pleasing effect elsewhere but met Schellenberg in a more intimate, tender register as the gods faced their final reckoning.” - Bachtrack

“James Hall (Armato) offers a masterful countertenor portrayal. His voice is imbued with a palpable sense of envy and calculation, his sharp delivery in the recitatives captured a god driven by strategic resentment rather than mere rage.” - OperaWire

“All three singing roles were performed flawlessly… I was especially impressed by countertenor James Hall as Armato, God of War.” - ArtsTalk Magazine

“The English countertenor James Hall, steeped in the Baroque repertoire… used his powerful voice expressively, as in ‘Ah! Perfida, qui sei’, also from the opera Orlando.” - Place de l’Opera

“English countertenor James Hall, a true Baroque hero… performed the role of Armato with great expressivity… He seized his opportunity with a sparkling performance of ‘Ah! Perfida, qui sei’ (from Orlando).” - Opera Gazet

Quotations from Dutch-language reviews translated from original Dutch.