Now, children, this is a little confusing, so please listen carefully. Near the end of his career, George Frederic Handel renounced the opera form, sensing that audiences were no longer intrigued by its fusion of classical stories and live dramatic action. He moved on, processing his creative impulses into the oratorio – essentially the same type of music, but without sets or costumes. In 1744, he had a change of heart, composing one of his strongest pieces, “Hercules,” as an opera. But practicalities caused him to mount the production not as a staged endeavor but as an oratorio; he conducted only five performances in London.

Adding some further obfuscation is that he soon thereafter wrote a completely different oratorio titled “The Choice of Hercules.” But let’s not even go there. On Tuesday evening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, we were treated to a fully staged version of the original opera “Hercules,” directed by Luc Bondy and featuring the renowned group Les Arts Florissants under the baton of William Christie.

The plot, from Sophocles and Ovid,is a simple yet emotionally brutal one. Dejanira, wife of Hercules, is jealous because she believes the captured princess Iole is her husband’s lover. Meanwhile, her son Hyllus learns through sortilege that Hercules will soon die. Giving Hercules a poisoned robe fashioned by a centaur, Dejanira brings about the death of not only her mate, but her sanity as well. Hercules expires and evaporates right before our eyes, his blood literally boiling – ah, those Greeks! Iole takes up with Hyllus and becomes the ruler of the kingdom.

This cast and crew were highly praised in 2004 when they unveiled this production at the Aix en Provence Festival and repeated their triumph in Paris at the Palais Garnier. The show was even a hit on French television. Finally, I was able to see in person what all the shouting was about.

It would be a bit of an exaggeration to state that American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato towered over this ensemble, but only because the rest of the cast was uniformly good. Katija Dragojevic was excellent as the raisonneur Lichas, projecting her low mezzo, even contralto, voice as a grounding in common sense and humanity. This part is often assigned to a countertenor and I, for one, was delighted with the lower female tessitura.

Ingela Bohlin has a warm, intensely resonating soprano and did a good job as the princess, an ingenue one minute and a politically savvy scion the next. She had some difficulties with her ornamentation,but overall was well-received by the crowd. Ed Lyon plied his sweet tenor to the role of Hyllus, although he suffered some volume problems in the first act.And William Shimell was a commanding Hercules, though, despite the title,having little to do until the end. But oh, that death rattle!

Handel’s great mad scene may be in “Orlando,” but Ms. DiDonato certainly made the most of the one that he composed for Dejanira. Staring out at the audience from a prone position, Dejanira sees the Furies, with their serpentine coiffures, coming after her. Like Cas sandra at the battlements in Berlioz’s “Les Troyens,” her hallucinations are more real than anything around her. Being a superb actress, Ms. DiDonato involved us all as a part of that higher reality. She seemed to be staring right at me as she recoiled in horror.

Earlier on, Ms.DiDonato dazzled with a beautiful “eternity of bliss and love” and an imperial “when beauty sorrow’s liv’ry wears.” She is a consummate singer and incredibly secure in her diction, pitch, and fioriture. But having to stay out there after her biggest scene, manically twitching and fixing her hair interminably, seemed a bit over the top.

Mr. Christie endeavored to get the audience out of there in 3 1/2 hours but ran over by about five minutes. He accomplished his task by employing judicious cuts, excising an entire intermission, and conducting at a very brisk tempo throughout. It was especially impressive to hear this fine orchestra enunciate so clearly and crisply, even at this accelerated pace. The band was augmented by interesting period instruments, including a theorbo (an elongated bass lute with open strings). The chorus was suitably supercilious and annoying (please note that this is high praise).

The minimalist sets included sand covering the floor of the stage, suggesting, considering the dual source material, both the Greek amphitheater and the Roman arena (“arena” being the Latin for “sand”). The one set also doubled as a beach for Iole, who luxuriated complete with cell phone, cocktail, and magazine. Costumes were essentially street clothes. This production had that “Vanya on 42nd Street” feel to it, and not just because I spotted Wallace Shawn in the audience.

“Hercules” will be performed again tonight, February 18 & 19 (Brooklyn Academy of Music, 718-636-4100).