In the wake of the landmark Peter Sellars production at Glyndebourne in 1996, Handel’s late, great oratorio Theodora has found a foothold in the opera house, staged by auteur directors in ways intended to illuminate ethical and spiritual questions of our time. Some say that their anachronisms and impositions bring Handel to life. Others watch and just die. Yet both sides seem to agree that a first-rate concert performance, free of interventionist overlays, serves the work as fully as any staging. At Caramoor, Avi Stein conducts the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and a slate of soloists who promise to hold us in thrall: Marie-Eve Munger, soprano, as Theodora, a noble Christian; Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor, as Didymus, the Roman officer converted to Christianity for love of her; Daniela Mack, mezzo-soprano, as Theodora’s friend Irene; Alek Shrader, tenor, as Septimius, another Roman; and Tyler Duncan, baritone, as Valens, the embodiment of worldly authority. —Matthew Gurewitsch