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loosealcina · 4 years

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GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL’S GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO AT LA SCALA, NOVEMBER 2, 2019

There's this famous Agatha Christie novel. At the end of his investigation, Hercule Poirot declares OK, I'll give you two versions of this murder, version A and version B. You decide which one you prefer, and leave me alone. (Version B is obviously true. And it's a shocker as well). Director Robert Carsen did essentially the same here. Giulio Cesare in Egitto version A is a great, compelling narrative; a full-scale drama whose main themes are some of the classics: war, (longing for) peace, star-crossed lovers, young ladies in peril, etc. Giulio Cesare in Egitto version B is… pretty much the opposite. I'm against any unnecessary spoiler, so I'm not telling you how, where, or when it was done. It was but a complete, spectacular, to some extent prankish flip. Version B tells us, version A is a flat-out lie. Let's just behold the triumph of frivolousness instead! It came with a stark message on art itself. For a long time, we've been believing that the highest, most respected forms of art—I don't know: Ingmar Bergman, Caravaggio, Fëdor Dostoevskij, The Velvet Underground & Nico…—are inherently authentic. They are supposed to include some kind of important truth about us, whereas low-quality products are deemed to be negligible/irrelevant.

Giulio Cesare in Egitto version B is like, Ingmar Bergman is a forgery. It's mere maquillage. You want the truth? Go for reality television, social-media feeds, corporate communication, and ads in general. (Version B carries a message on politics too. It effectively depicts the disasters of war. It depicts the whys and wherefores of today's wars; and it depicts our staggering ability not to give a damn about other people's pain). This approach was supported and enhanced by every single ingredient of the performance. Lights (created by Peter van Praet and Robert Carsen himself) were a favorite of mine; they were constantly meaningful and elegant, not to mention original (most of the time their source was either above the scene, or below, or in the wings). The orchestra conducted by Giovanni Antonini was thin and agile. The use of historical instruments was especially evident during the Ouverture, when the violins sounded decidedly tinny and nervous. Besides, the horns were as mellow, resonant and colorful as (the best specimens of) their modern counterparts.

As for the cast, three castrato roles were played by male singers: Bejun Mehta (Giulio Cesare), Christophe Dumaux (the extremely evil Tolomeo), and Philippe Jaroussky (Sesto). They may have had a hard time coping with Georg Friedrich Händel's flashy writing here and there, but they were theatrically outstanding throughout. On the other hand, Danielle de Niese's Cleopatra was a peerless gem. While her coloratura was sparkling and whimsical, her canto spianato was as bold and glorious as it gets. She positively carried the show, her artistry equally crucial to Giulio Cesare version A and Giulio Cesare version B. Two arias of hers («V'adoro, pupille» and «Da tempeste il legno infranto») were turned into witty, sensuous music-hall extravaganzas that can easily be dubbed Cleopatra at the Movies (with surprise cameos by Claudette Colbert, Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor) and Cleopatra's Bath. I'll complete my shortlist of memorable moments with two slow arias: «Priva son d’ogni conforto» (sung by Cornelia [Sara Mingardo] from one of the darkest places one could possibly imagine) and «Piangerò la sorte mia» (another highlight of Danielle de Niese/Cleopatra's). I'd swear those downtempo tunes made the whole universe stop for a while.

#opera #teatro alla scala #ancient history #wealth #seduction

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operaweekly · 7 years

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Kristina Hammarström singing “Vorrei vendicarmi” from Händel’s Alcina.

Today’s #WomanCrushWednesday goes to Bradamante! This incredible warrior woman boasts some of the most virtuosic music in the opera. Usually cast as a contralto, this role demands a fuller, darker sound that still has the agility to execute the long coloratura passages written in Bradamante’s arias.

Bradamante experiences many emotions throughout the aria. She comes to Alcina’s island disguised as her brother in order to rescue her beloved Ruggiero. Through the process, Bradamante manages to steal the heart of Alcina’s sister while inciting jealousy in Ruggiero--who believes “Ricciardo” is there to steal Alcina away from him.

In the end--after a couple of extremely difficult arias--Bradamante prevails and escapes the island with her beloved.

#Woman Crush Wednesday #WomanCrushWednesday #Wcw #Woman Crush Wednesday: Bradamante #Alcina #G.F. Händel #georg friedrich händel #Händel #Opera #Opera Tag #Opera Performance #Opera Theatre #Singing #Classical Singing #Classical Music #Aria #Bradamante #Vorrei Vendicarmi #Kristina Hammarström

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thealpacalypse-archive · 7 years

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since you mention opera, aka a cool thing, what is your: favourite opera? favourite opera you've seen? opera you want to see? :)

yaaaaaay i didn’t expect people actually would ask me anything about opera, thaaaanks this is so cool!

well the last opera I saw that really blew me away was Jenůfa by Leoš Janáček (who is a super cool Czech composer of the late 19th / early 20th century and you should definitely check him out if you’re into that kind of thing). It’s pretty dark, about a woman called Jenůfa who gets pregnant while unmarried, and in fear of being shunned by society she has to hide it. eventually her mother kills the baby so Jenůfa gets a second chance at having a good life. There’s this great aria the mother sings when she makes the decision to kill the baby, it’s called “Co chvíla...co chvíla”, and that’s one of the most soul crushing pieces of music i’ve ever heard. I saw this opera in a production at the State Opera in Munich and it was mindblowing, especially because Karita Mattila was playing the Kostelnička, the mother of Jenůfa. like... wow.

“favorite” opera in general is usually very hard to pick, because there are so many amazing ones, all different and great in their own way. but usually i reply to that question with “Orpheus ed Euridice” by Gluck, because that was the first opera I really knew, and I’m honestly so in love with the music. I’m also always here for alto women in drag (that’s honestly one of my favorite things about opera, not gonna lie). I’m also always blown away by Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” - that is music on a deep, dark, existential level I tell you. The ouverture alone daaaaammmnn.

Also, currently I have become very fond of “The Consul”, which is an opera from 1950 and by the way an excellent one to start with for anyone who wants to get into opera. It’s not at all popular or anything, but the music is great, a mixture of italian belcanto and film scores (and some more things), and the story is great: about the inhumanity of bureaucracy and a woman who fails to get a visa. sounds lame, but trust me, it’s super good and also pretty relevant, looking at stuff like the refugee situation in Europe and the Muslim Ban and stuff like that. (if you wanna give it a try, “To this we come” is the biggest and most important aria from it and I love it. the singing style in the link is a bit oldschool, but I love the voice.)

a few operas that I’d really love to see on stage are Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro”, Händel’s “Alcina”, Zimmermann’s “Die Soldaten”, pretty much everything Janáček has ever done, and also, there’s an actual “Brokeback Mountain” opera that came out just a few years after the movie and I’d be really interested to see that.

okay that was enough rambling about opera for now, I hope you enjoyed it :D

#opera #thanks this literally made my week #my posts #unjellify

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jvs86 · 5 years

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Time for Some drama! #Händel #Haendel #aria #oratorium #samson #barocmusic #baroc #baroque #oldmusic #classicalmusic #gay #gayboy #gaysinger #tenor #gaytenor #highvoice Link to #youtube https://youtu.be/wkfddYpth4I #like and #subscribe #smule #instasmule #classicalkaraoke (bij Deurne, Belgium) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0IgIfEh3qm/?igshid=1gcacj295dh2r

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symphonicshakespeare · 5 years

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Program Notes from Ever-Fixed Mark: A Senior Voice Recital

An Introduction

Last year, I presented a junior lecture recital entitled “Symphonic Shakespeare”, a study of the adaptations of playwright William Shakespeare’s texts into western Classical music. It only made sense that I should continue learning about the ways in which his timeless narratives and characters were rewritten, redefined, or interpreted by the music in which they were set. This recital aims to address the role of the soprano, which I have come to find in many contexts represents the love interest. It is no secret that Shakespeare’s writing embodies a type of romance, eroticism, and affection that shapes the way we as a society approach and understand relationships. Aside from understanding the significance of adaptation, then, this recital is to showcase the multifaceted and complex concept of “love”.

About the title: “Ever-Fixed Mark” is taken from Sonnet 116, in which he writes: “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove. / O no! it is an ever-fixed mark,” (116: 2-8). I thought it was fitting, as all of the songs on the program have to do with love or some shape of it, to name my recital. Additionally, written notation, music itself is but an ever-fixed mark, bound to exist so long as the score, or even the melody from rote, is maintained.

“It was a lover and his lass”

The arts have intertwined for as long as they’ve existed as a means of expression—and in the English Renaissance, especially on the stage of the Elizabethan theatre, so they did. “It was a lover and his lass” was a diegetic (meaning the music was a witnessed part of the performance) number in Act V, scene III of As You Like It, sung by one of the pages to the betrothed Audrey and Touchstone. In the scene, Touchstone expresses dislike of the song, as it represents little of actual love; its lyrics are ridiculous, overall, it’s silly, and there’s really no substance—but the music, just as love itself, is beautiful despite the frivolity of the antics happening lyrically.

Thomas Morley (1557-1602) was an English renaissance secular and sacred composer, singer, organist, and publisher, probably most renowned today for his madrigals (secular a cappella pieces for six to eight voices). He published this tune in his anthology, First Book of Ayres, in 1600. It contained English songs for voice and lute, and although it cannot be confirmed that this version of the song was used in the production that William Shakespeare would have presented at the Globe, it is known that Morley and Shakespeare, two creative contemporaries, did not collaborate accidentally.

“If Music Be The Food of Love”

Following his death, Shakespeare’s works (as well as those of other authors) were disseminated into spin-offs and retellings by other playwrights and publishers. His portfolio edition of these stories would disappear from the repertoire, but nonetheless influenced English literature and drama for centuries to come.

Colonel Henry Heveningham (1651-1700) created a text, adapted from Duke Orsino’s opening dialogue in Twelfth Night I.i.1-15 as he laments to his attendant Curio about his failed attempts at wooing the fair Olivia. Compare the original text to the lyrics below:

Although it certainly comes from the same place (Duke Orsino’s desperate, fascinated appetite for a humanistic satisfaction be it tangible or expressed through creative means) it’s obviously different. The latter, by Heveningham, is written as a ballad, between two lovers, instead of an address. Henry Purcell sets this strophic text with word painting, the longing emphasised by a melody that slowly climbs the staff with accompanying crescendo, that eventually falls dramatically at the end of the verse, relinquishing itself to the accompaniment and too, hypothetically, the object of the serenade.

“O, let me weep,” from The Fairy Queen

The Fairy Queen is another example of Shakespeare’s work being adapted after his death. This particular semi-opera, first performed in 1692, is based on Midsummer Night’s Dream—in the spoken moments, the original text remains unchanged, but Henry Purcell (1659-1695) and his librettist Elkanah Settle (1648-1724) change some of the text in ‘masques’, or musical scenes prompted by magical, supernatural, or drunken characters, to fit seventeenth-century dramatic conventions. “O, let me weep”, or as it is more commonly called, ‘The Plaint’ is one of these masques. It was written after the opera had already premiered, as a kind of showcase piece for countertenor or soprano performer—superstars in their own right during the Baroque era.

The Baroque era was the last period in which English composers held strong relevance until the turn of the twentieth century, compared to their continental contemporaries. Henry Purcell was a powerhouse in this regard; he was proficient in various styles of counterpoint yet mainly championed the English Baroque style in his works, composed in both sacred and secular genres with substantial popularity, and also composed for theatre and opera.

“V’adoro, pupille” from Giulio Cesare

Shakespeare wrote the historical drama Julius Caesar in Spring of 1599. The political tensions in England were high, as Queen Elizabeth reached the end of her reign. Subjects of republicanism versus monarchy were circulating, and to depict the killing of a king would be tantamount to treason. However, by using Plutarch’s Lives as his source material, an author that Queen Elizabeth I studied, he effectively avoided the threat of creative persecution. In the eighteenth century, however, the subject of a political history was ripe for opera seria—and librettist Nicola Francesco Haym (1678-1729) created Giulio Cesare in Egitto with Georg Frederic Händel (1685-1759) for the Royal Academy of Music in 1724 during the composer’s tenure at the English court. It was a relatively successful work, and one of Händel’s more (if not most) well known Italian operas to date.

Her presence may be more pertinent in the related Shakespearean tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra, but in Händel’s opera, Cleopatra’s affairs are everything but ignored. In this aria, she admires the young, handsome Julius Caesar, lamenting their never to be love, as she’s far past her courting years:

Fünf Lieder WoO post. 22 (Ophelia-Lieder)

The German translations of many of Shakespeare’s plays appeared in the early 19th century, sparked by Schlegel-Tieck’s publication. Among other composers to set Shakespeare’s works, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) approached the setting of Ophelia’s songs in a really interesting way by honouring the sing-song style of the text and folly and falter of rhythm in her speeches, and too had a particular choice of harmonic language. He uses very basic piano accompaniment that resembles a kind of pastorale Renaissance style—in the first and second songs, simpler, lute-like voicings and strophic melodies in the soprano. In the third setting, “Auf Morgen its Sankt Valentin’s Tag,” we hear an off-kiltered compound duple meter that almost feels like the pillars of a village dance. In the fourth and fifth songs, Brahms alludes to a sort of chorale or hymn form, but more notably uses a mixture of modes (variations of scales) between A-flat major and its relative minor key of F. This simple relationship ties together more antiquated musical forms and the Romantic style, which nineteenth-century composers defined with manipulations of harmony and tonal center.

The english translation given is not a direct interpretation of the German lyrics, rather the original text from Hamlet Act IV scene v, lines 23-26, 29-33, 48-55, 165-187, and 190-201, respectively.

“Je veux vivre,” from Roméo et Juliette

The stage of the French grand opera is the perfect setting for the melancholic story of the teenage star-crossed lovers. After his major success, Faust, Charles Gounod (1818-1893) and his librettists, Jules Barbier (1825-1901) and Michel Carré (1821-1872) premiered the opera at the Théâtre Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet, Paris in April 1859, and it rose to great success with over three hundred performances in the first eight years of its lifetime.

Juliette’s aria is a testament to teenage life and fleeting crushes. The viennese waltz setting is fitting for the scene in Act I, when all of the characters are meeting at the Capulet estate for her birthday. Juliette’s whimsy enchants Roméo, and all present. The foreshadowing in the lyrics is exquisite.

“Orpheus with his lute”

Oddly enough, the fervent revival of Shakespeare in the nineteenth century continued well into the following years—as theatres continued to perform his work, it was picked up and circulated. British composers especially, such as Roger Quilter, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Benjamin Britten, among others, sought to honour and redefine their nation’s artistic heritage in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was influenced heavily by Tudor music and brought elements of English folk song into his operas, ballets, religious music, and symphonies. “Orpheus with his lute” is an example of a neo-classical (twentieth century interpretations of Classical or eighteenth century compositional styles) reimagining of Patience’s song from Act III scene I of Henry VIII. The 1901 score is the first of two settings by Williams of the same text.

“Falling in love with love” from Boys from Syracuse

Boys from Syracuse is a 1938 musical by Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and Lorenz Hart (1895-1943) with book by George Abbott (1887-1995) based on A Comedy of Errors. Adriana sings this tune in Act I, while recanting the stories of her romance with her husband to her sewing circle. Love, although promising, isn’t always as it seems. Rodgers used the dance form, the waltz in particular, to set the ‘mood’ of romance and anticipatory or longing emotions. In the age of Musical Theatre composition, the use of these subliminal musical association works to create further drama and ironic or comedic juxtaposition.

The collaboration between Rodgers and Hart was short-lived, and the pair had a falling out—not romantically, but the song holds as a testament perhaps not only to Adriana’s woes, but too their professional relationship.

“The Star Crossed Lovers”(“Pretty Girl”)

“Star Crossed Lovers” is a track on the album Such Sweet Thunder by Duke Ellington and his orchestra, released by Columbia records in 1957. The album is a twelve-part instrumental suite based on Shakespeare’s works, inspired by a visit to a Festival happening at the same time as their Stratford, Ontario performance by the band leader, Duke Ellington (1899-1974), and his arranger, Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967). The album was written in three weeks and performed the next year at the festival.

Interestingly enough, aside from the Morley piece, this is the only selection on the recital that doesn’t necessitate or originate from a gendered performance; rather, it can be interpreted by any singer, as long as it is addressed to the subject of the ballad, “pretty girl”. Strayhorn was an out member of the LGBTQ+ community, and in a small effort to display how not only musical styles but also social ideas changed, I wanted to include it (and this interpretation) on the program.

For full bibliographic references, or to see the project at large, visit symphonicshakespeare.tumblr.com

#soprano #recital #ever fixed mark #shakespeare #program notes #senior recital #music school #Billy strayhorn #duke ellington #star crossed lovers #pretty girl #falling in love with love #musicology #music history

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theleaderdotinfo-blog · 6 years

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Candlelight Concert in Jávea. has been published at http://www.theleader.info/2017/11/29/candlelight-concert-javea/

New Post has been published on http://www.theleader.info/2017/11/29/candlelight-concert-javea/

Candlelight Concert in Jávea.

With Baroque Hightlights Especially For Chrismas

Last out of 4 live concerts in 2017

On Saturday, December 9th at 20:00h, the Christmas Candlelight Concert begins at The Lifestyle Company Jessica Bataille in Jávea. “A growing number of music lovers came to our live concerts in completely different music genres this year”, says the organizer of ‘Jessica’s Concerts’. Prior to each concert, Jessica’s team transforms the interior design showroom into a cozy theater, where much can be seen in the field of living and lifestyle decorations. “This creates an intimate atmosphere during the concerts allowing the professional musicians to have direct contact with their audience”, according to the music promotor Adrián van Dongen from Valencia. The Frescobaldi Ensemble plays a tasteful Christmas program that expresses both the reflective and the festive side of Christmas. A program with highlights from the Barogue period and some beautiful arias by the soprano María Estal Vera (picture). Music by Bach, Vivaldi , Tartini, Corelli en Händel, interspersed with Christmas Carols. The performing instrumentalists are Amparo Camps Contreras, violin, José Duce Chenoll, harpsichord and Adrián van Dongen, cello. [caption id="attachment_15731" align="aligncenter" width="483"] Candlelight Concert in Jávea.[/caption] When asked why she gives concerts in her spacious interior studio, Jessica answers as follows: “I started a concert a while ago, by accident actually, because I got involved in a beautiful project related to young talents in music. My father loved music and he was my big inspiration. He encouraged me to ballet dancing and to play the piano. As a young student, he always drove me to any performance that I wanted to go to. I lost my father when I was only 11 years old. His early death made me stop doing everything he had encouraged me to do, particularly music. Years later, when I created my studio, I wanted to name it ‘the lifestyle company’. Yet I could not decide what I was going to do with it. Who knows what one might be doing by the time you get to be 30? So I started many actvities in the studio simultaneously: a work space, an interior decorating shop, a gallery, a shop, a theater stage with curtains and a grand piano. Unlimited areas in which I could become creative. It took me years to realize that my dream of music is never going to go away. So I might as well give it everything I’ve got…now! Helping young talented children into music, was the most fulfilling experience I have ever encountered. Their illusion together with their innocence is probably the strongest drive to achieve their dreams. And here we are… 22 years after opening my first shop, I am ready to share this with all of you. To friends of music: you are welcome to all these aspects that I love. Just come to ‘my livingroom’ at The Lifestyle Company which we transform into a theater for the evenings of our concerts! On the 9th of December, the magic of classical barroque Christmas highlights will be played by a group of outstanding professional musicians from Valencia. Let’s give them a podium to perform for us at The Lifestyle Company in Jávea! In 2018, I would like to continue with a new beautiful program.” Het theater address of The Lifestyle Company is: Calle Bruselas 8, hoek Calle Roma in Jávea. Tickets are available at 17,50 Euro as of 19:00h at the door, one hour prior to the concert. Drinks are included. The Christmas Candlelight concert starts on Saturday, December 9th at 20:00h.

#Candlelight Concert in Jávea.

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theleaderdotinfo-blog · 6 years

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Candlelight Concert in Jávea. has been published at http://www.theleader.info/2017/11/29/candlelight-concert-javea/

New Post has been published on http://www.theleader.info/2017/11/29/candlelight-concert-javea/

Candlelight Concert in Jávea.

With Baroque Hightlights Especially For Chrismas

Last out of 4 live concerts in 2017

#Candlelight Concert in Jávea.

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operaweekly · 7 years

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“Sta nell’ircana pietrosa tana” from Händel’s Alcina, sung by Phillippe Jaroussky

Today’s #ManCrushMonday goes to Ruggiero! Originally written for an alto castrato, this role is usually cast as a trouser role for lyric mezzo-soprano. More recently, as shown in the attached video, countertenors are being considered for this role.

Ruggiero is betrothed to Bradamante, but has been lured to Alcina’s enchanted isle and fallen under her spell. Ruggiero spends a vast majority of the opera either angry, confused, sexually frustrated, or any combination of the three. At one point, Ruggiero even faces difficulty coming to terms with the fact that his fianceé has come to rescue him--as he believes it is another trick by the illusionist Alcina.

Ruggiero is surely a charmer. Händel wrote some of the most beautiful music in this opera just for Ruggiero. It is fitting, I suppose, for Ruggiero to be so endearing--to the point that Alcina’s love for him is what ultimately leads to her demise.

While the role requires substantial vocal agility, as represented in this aria, the role also features some of the most contrasting music in the opera that also requires a rich lyricism and substantial phrases.

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operaweekly · 7 years

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Welcome to another #SelectionSunday, folks! This week’s opera is Händel’s Alcina.

Alcina is one of my favorite’s from the baroque period because it is the first opera (since L’incoronazione di Poppea) where see a true femme fatale character--until Bizet’s Carmen, over a hundred years later.

Premiered in 1735, Alcina would be Händel’s last big success in London. The title character of Alcina, however, was met with considerable adversity. Her first words are “Welcome to my island of desire and pleasure.” Immediately introduced as a woman full of confidence, in ownership of herself and the land around her, she was not very well received by the audience and the popular opinion of women at the time.

Further curious in Händel’s portrayal of the woman-warrior Bradamante--a strong female on a quest to rescue her lover from Alcina’s clutches--disguised as her own brother.

This opera takes a lot of twists and turns throughout its three acts. When I’m asked about this opera, it’s difficult to condense into several sentences because there is just so much that goes on through this storyline.

Click through for links to full performances of this opera, a synopsis, and selected scenes!

Vienna State Opera’s production of Alcina: (Part I) (Part II)

Act 1

Bradamante, again searching for her lover, arrives on Alcina’s island with Ruggiero’s former tutor, Melisso. Dressed in armor, Bradamante looks like a young man and goes by the name of her own brother, Ricciardo. She and Melisso possess a magic ring which enables the wearer to see through illusion, which they plan to use to break Alcina’s spells and release her captives.

The first person they meet is the sorceress Morgana. Barely human and with no understanding of true love, she immediately abandons her own lover Oronte for the handsome ‘Ricciardo.’ Morgana conveys the visitors to Alcina’s court, where Bradamante is dismayed to discover that Ruggiero is besotted with Alcina and in a state of complete amnesia about his previous life. Also at Alcina’s court is a boy, Oberto, who is looking for his father, Astolfo, who was last seen heading toward this island. Bradamante guesses that Astolfo is now transformed into something, but she holds her peace and concerns herself with Ruggiero. Bradamante and Melisso rebuke Ruggiero for his desertion, but he can’t think of anything except Alcina.

Meanwhile, Oronte discovers that Morgana has fallen in love with ‘Ricciardo,’ and challenges ‘him’ to a duel. Morgana stops the fight, but Oronte is in a foul mood and takes it out on Ruggiero. He tells the young man exactly how Alcina treats her former lovers and adds that, as far as he can tell, Alcina has fallen in love with the newcomer, Ricciardo. Ruggiero is horrified and overwhelms Alcina with his jealous fury. Things get even worse when ‘Ricciardo’ enters and pretends to admire Alcina. Alcina calms Ruggiero, but Bradamante is so upset at seeing her fiancé wooed before her very eyes that she reveals her true identity to Ruggiero. Melisso hastily contradicts her and Ruggiero becomes very confused.

Alcina tells Morgana that she plans to turn Ricciardo into an animal, just to show Ruggiero how much she really loves him. Morgana begs Ricciardo to escape the island and Alcina’s clutches, but ‘he’ says he’d rather stay, as he loves another. Morgana believes that this other person is herself, and the act ends with Alcina’s aria “Tornami a vagheggiar“. (In some productions. this aria is sung by Morgana.)

Act 2

Melisso recalls Ruggiero to reason and duty by letting him wear the magic ring: under its influence, Ruggiero sees the island as it really is—a desert, peopled with monsters. Appalled, he realizes he must leave, and sings the famous aria “Verdi prati” (“Green meadows”) where he admits that even though he knows the island and Alcina are mere illusion, their beauty will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Melisso warns Ruggiero that he cannot just leave; Alcina still wields immense power, and he should cover his escape by telling her that he wishes to go hunting. Ruggiero agrees, but, thoroughly bewildered by the magic and illusion surrounding him, he refuses to believe his eyes when he at last sees Bradamante as herself, believing that she may be another of Alcina’s illusions. Bradamante is in despair, as is Alcina. Convinced of Ruggiero’s indifference, she enters to turn Ricciardo into an animal, and Ruggiero has to pull himself together quickly and convince the sorceress that he does not need any proof of her love. It is at this point that the audience realises that Alcina genuinely loves Ruggiero; from now until the end of the opera, she is depicted sympathetically.

Oronte realizes that Ricciardo, Melisso and Ruggiero are in some sort of alliance, and Morgana and Alcina realise they are being deceived. But it is too late: Alcina’s powers depend on illusion and, as true love enters her life, her magic powers slip away. As the act ends, Alcina tries to call up evil spirits to stop Ruggiero from leaving her, but her magic fails her.

Act 3

After this the opera finishes swiftly. Morgana and Oronte try to rebuild their relationship; she returns to him and he rebuffs her but (once she is offstage) admits he loves her still. Ruggiero returns to his proper heroic status and sings an aria accompanied by high horns; Oberto is introduced to a lion, to whom he feels strangely attached, and Alcina sings a desolate aria in which she longs for oblivion.

Bradamante and Ruggiero decide that they need to destroy the source of Alcina’s magic, usually represented as an urn. Alcina pleads with them, but Ruggiero is deaf to her appeals and smashes the urn. As he does so, everything is both ruined and restored. Alcina’s magic palace crumbles to dust and she and Morgana sink into the ground, but Alcina’s lovers are returned to their proper selves. The lion turns into Oberto’s father, Astolfo, and other people stumble on, “I was a rock,” says one, “I a tree” says another, and “I a wave in the ocean…” All the humans sing of their relief and joy, and Alcina is forgotten.

#opera #opera tag #opera theatre #G.F. Händel #Händel #georg friedrich händel #Alcina #Selection Sunday #SelectionSunday #Synopsis #opera performance #baroque #baroque opera

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