A revenge tragedy based on the Gesta Danorum of the 13th-century historian Saxo Grammaticus (which was source material also for Shakespeare), Francesco Gasparini’s Baroque Hamlet opera premiered in Venice in 1706. Though forgotten today, Gasparini was a student of Arcangelo Corello and a teacher of Domenico Scarlatti—sterling credentials, indeed. Somehow, Ambleto found its way to London in 1712, just as the great George Frideric Handel was gaining his foothold, and there the score remained. Now, the adventurous Theater an der Wien (built on the proceeds of the original Magic Flute) teleports Ambleto back to the Continent, with the countertenor Raffaele Pe as the perhaps no longer so melancholy Dane. Pe’s range as an actor extends from commedia dell’arte to the psychopathic emperor Nero of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea. Asked which of his characters is most like him, Pe named the latter. An amped-up Hamlet should be just his jam. —Matthew Gurewitsch