“Love & Power”: Boston Early Music Festival Again Unearths a Baroque Rarity

Aaron Sheehan (Piso), Michael Skarke (Tiridates), Amanda Forsythe (Ormœna), Emőke Baráth (Octavia) and Sherezade Panthaki (Clelia) in Octavia.

A dramatic moment from an opera, showing a group of well-dressed actors in historical costumes, with one woman in a large yellow gown, standing in front of a man in a crown who is holding a scepter, while another character kneels at her feet, receiving a kiss from her hand.

Each edition of the festival mounts as its centerpiece a fully staged revival of a near-forgotten opera—in 2025, BEMF chose Reinhard Keiser’s ‘Octavia.’

“Love & Power”: Boston Early Music Festival Again Unearths a Baroque Rarity