OAE/Haïm, Barbican, London

Had it not been for the jealous machinations of the all-powerful Lully, the vast output Marc-Antoine Charpentier left at his death in 1704 would surely have included many more than three full-length operas.

Had it not been for the jealous machinations of the all-powerful Lully, the vast output Marc-Antoine Charpentier left at his death in 1704 would surely have included many more than three full-length operas. But his dramatic masterpiece Médée could not be mounted at the Opèra in Paris until after Lully's death, while his only two previous "tragedies in music" were special commissions for the Jesuit Collège Louis-le-Grand.

It was the second of these, David et Jonathas (1688), that the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under the volatile Emmanuelle Haïm chose for this tercentenary concert performance. While less consistently inspired than Médée - the libretto by the priest François de Paule Bretonneau has some extended divertissements to keep the Jesuit students busy - it includes several of Charpentier's most compelling scenas and a wealth of orchestral harmony and invention.

Not least in the gripping prologue. No allegorical flummery here: we are plunged straight into the drama with King Saul's visit to the Witch of Endor, making for a fascinating comparison with Purcell's contemporaneous chamber cantata treatment of the same incident.

Charpentier is more expansive in evoking the forebodings of Saul (sung with brooding paranoia by the baritone Laurent Naouri), the mounting hysteria of the Witch (the agile countertenor Daniel Auchincloss) and the message of doom delivered by the Ghost of Samuel (the bass Richard Savage) accompanied by the deepest four-part harmony.

The first two acts proper celebrate the victories of David (the smooth yet plangent tenor Paul Agnew) and his love for Jonathan (the pure-voiced French soprano Jael Azzaretti) with ensemble and choral sequences (the well-drilled Choir of the Enlightenment) culminating in a fine chaconne on the pleasures of love. Meanwhile, the plot set in train by the Philistine baddie Joabel (the insinuating baritone Richard Burkhard) leads to an anguished Act III monologue for Saul and Act IV solos and a duet for David and Jonathan on their grief at parting. Act V brings in succession the battle, death of Jonathan, suicide of Saul and pyrrhic victory of David as he is proclaimed King of Israel by Philistine King Achis (the bass Andrew Foster-Williams).

Charpentier's score is mostly laid out in a flexible, accompanied arioso, buttressed by instrumental ritornellos, marches and dances. Some scholars might criticise Haïm's realisation for an orchestral body of 32 players as oversophisticated in its quick-shifting scoring and lavish ornamentation. But her ability to draw expressive phrasing, to keep pacing vital without rushing, and to convey powerful feeling without indulgence showed that the lessons of her principal mentor William Christie have been more than well learnt.