Laurence Sherwood discusses and quotes some words on Baroque musical
expression, audience behavior/attitudes etc., written by a perceptive
young acquaintance who's been taking a music course covering the subject.
Without addressing the questions in detail, I'll just make a couple of
observations and recommendations for further exploration--

The quoted comments generally were directed at perceptions of music from
the "late" Baroque.  Even accepting the highly artificial time-fence set
up around the period, (i.e., ca. 1600-1750), then there's a whole century
of Baroque music that generally doesn't get its due, overshadowed by the
great Bach/Handel/Vivaldi edifice.  To my ears, the late Baroque was
more formalized in style compared to a less homogeneous, constantly
evolving and more exploratory expressive culture that took place during
the 1600s.  Any study of the period would benefit from a look at the
musical landscape of that century, which the Three Big Wigs inherited.

One possible place to start is the Baroque Overview as part of the
"Early Music FAQ," maintained by Todd Michel McComb:

   http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/beginlst/baroque.htm

Another observation--performance is everything in representing this
repertoire, moreso because musical notation and conventions from the era
were often less well documented (versus music from e.g. the 19th century).
With more scholarship, improved performing standards, and even some
creative twists in what's done, the type and level of expressivity in
performing music of this era has changed over the decades.  Part of this
is also from a greater diversity in performing ensembles--just look at
the recent burgeoning of Italian groups playing both instrumental and
vocal Baroque music and what that has done to the perception of composers
from Monteverdi to Vivaldi to Rameau.  Impressions received while listening
to a "white-bread" performance recording done 20-30 years ago can be
different from one of the same work, made last year.

It would be great if in fact a group like Concerto Italiano were performing
a Vivaldi opera in the Philly area soon for Larry's friend.  Perhaps a
surer bet would be going up the coast a bit to the Brooklyn Academy (Les
Arts Florissants will be doing Rameau's "Les Boreades"), or the Boston
Early Music Festival, doing Conradi's (who he?) 1691 opera "Ariadne".
Both in June.

Bill H.