Autumn Tour 2009
'Sensual, searing, smouldering with passion and
sensationally well directed,
James Conway’s wise and intelligent staging is a
masterpiece.'
Telegraph
|
Alcina - Handel
Like
Teseo, Alcina has at its heart an enchantress who loves a mortal and who,
rejected, exacts lonely, futile revenge. Alcina is one of Handel’s most
wonderful creations: truly seductive, she invokes in every listener to pity and
terror. Her island is like a suite in which she has been shut up, ageless and
lovely, alluring and corrupting. Joanna Parker’s poetic wooden island, with a
great chandelier in the middle of the floor and a harpsichord full of water, is
also a refuge for beauty from the contrasting austerity of the bare meeting
house whence two doughty Puritans (Melisso and Bradamante) set out to retrieve
the lost, errant Ruggiero. Once again, Parker has designed detailed period
costumes from a rich palette of colour and texture; Bernadette Iglich will
bring to James Conway’s original production a courtly choreography,
physicalising Alcina’s musical language of love. |
Images
Images from the 2005 Production
ETO Handelfest is
made possible through generous support of The Geoffrey C Hughes
Charitable Trust & the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
English Touring Opera gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Arts Council England.
