The countertenor Paul-Antoine Bénos-Dijan has established himself year after year as one of the great favourites of the Beaune public, like an heir to Andreas Scholl. After Ottone in Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea, which opens this weekend, we find him a century later with another of his favourite composers, Handel, and the profound and virtuoso music written for the great castrati who criss-crossed Europe, thrilling audiences in Neapolitan and London theatres, while serving Roman cantatas or those intended for the dilettanti of British high society. The young Frenchman’s agile and supple alto voice, with its dark velvet, takes up the challenge of these legendary artists with panache.