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HANDEL ALCINA
Revival of production by David McVicar In the original run of Alcina at ENO, conducted by Sir Charles MacKerras, I had been greatly taken by Lisa Milne as Alcina's sister, and her success in that role must have contributed to her elevation to the title role. I have more recently had concerns about her voice production (excessive vibrato etc) and felt that she is just not right for this role, but this is a matter of taste. Memories are fickle, but mine are good of Joan Rodgers in the title role, and especially of Sarah Connolly as a bewitched knight under Alcina's spell in this story of sorcery & transformation, one of Handel's 'magical' operas. In this revival, Deanne Meek from New York struts her stuff as Ruggiero, in a very welcome ENO debut, and the large cast of supporting soloists deal with Handel's exposed lines with confidence, enjoying the varied da capos and opportunities for flourishes at the ends of their arias; Laura Claycomb, Andrew Mackenzie-Wick and Charlotte Hellekant all making notable ENO debut appearances. The small orchestra allowed the voices to dominate with no strain; I did at times find Richard Hickox's tempi perilously slow. To keep the eyes engaged, David McVicar has a huge number of visually entertaining conceits, countering the rationalism of a book-laden philosopher, Mark Richardson, who likes to play with mechanical toys, with Alcina's entourage of fancifully dressed attendants, who cavort around and climb all over the scenery athletically to keep boredom at bay. The scenery of illusions is created on an imaginary island, Alcina's powers eventually destroyed and Handel's bust smashed to pieces, which perhaps gives a wrong message? On first viewing I was content to enjoy all the magical goings on without bothering too much about detailed references. Seeing it all again, I thought how fascinating it would be if McVicar had shared some of his thoughts about how he arrived at his own realisation to complement the lavishly illustrated historical essays in the programme book (c.f. the account of the director's thinking appended to my review of Handel's Susanna, recently staged at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama). The best deconstruction of this enchanting farrago is provided by Tim Ashley's review in The Guardian.
ENO's Alcina on 29 November will
be talked of in the future as one of those rare evenings at the
opera when everything comes together and you feel anew that this
is the finest of all the performance arts. This production is
certain to be hugely popular and to present a real challenge to
Covent Garden, now re-opening. Rather than praising all the singers
individually, I prefer to list the director, David McVicar; Michael
Vale, designer of the elaborate sets lit by Paule Constable, Sue
Blane (costume designer), Michael Keegan-Dolan, (choreographer)
and Amanda Holden (translator). The company style and ensemble was
of a quality that, not many decades ago, was only to be found at
Glyndebourne. Sir Charles MacKerras conducted
a performing version from a score prepared by Clifford Bartlett,
editor of the Early Music Journal, which contrives to be both learned
and entertaining, as was ENO's new Alcina. This costly production
brought together allusions to the Age of Enlightment with eighteenth
century fascination with magic and stage machinery. There are layers
upon layers of allusions, discussed in the readable and fully illustrated
programme book. Too clever by three-quarters, you might think, but
it all meshes and works. Rather than attempting to describe the
intricacies of McVicar's conception, I would urge people everywhere
to make the journey to London to see ENO's 1999 Alcina. A palpable
hit! See also:
Alcina
on Arthaus DVD by Peter Grahame Woolf in The
Opera Critic. HANDEL Alcina |
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