If Alcina takes place at the heart of sensuality, AriodanteAriodante is an opera that starts and ends with celebration – but in between, each of the characters confronts their worst fears, and the darkest side of their natures. Some are lost to darkness, others broken by suffering, others barely redeemed – but all are transformed irrevocably in the bare course of a day. ETO’s celebrated production keeps the action in Scotland, but turns the King into a senior figure in a dissenting sect in the early 19^th century (somewhat reminiscent of Bronte’s Shirley!), his followers and Ginevra’s suitors into aspiring clergymen. Every reference to God in the original Italian is retained in the translation prepared for this production; the central cultural references, often cited in rehearsal, were Lars van Trier’s visionary film Breaking the Waves and the paintings of Strindberg. depicts the consequences of idealising, or suppressing sensual love. One of several suitors for the hand of Ginevra, Ariodante is pledged to marry her, with her father’s blessing: but when she is falsely accused of immorality by one of her other, unsuccessful suitors, she is cast out by her father, by Ariodante, and by all her friends.