Handel rarely had trouble finding good material for new operas, but the scenarios borrowed from Orlando Furioso seem to have inspired some of his greatest music. In Alcina, the third of his operas based on episodes from Ariosto’s epic, Handel used the libretto from an extant Italian opera as his point of departure for nearly three hours of memorable melody, brisk recitative, and more than a few ostentatious displays of vocal brilliance. Under the direction of Harry Bicket, Alcina – one of the five works presented at this summer’s Santa Fe Opera – was given a performance of tremendous vitality, and the dazzling arias were brought to life by a consistently strong group of soloists. The staging of David Alden, however, proved altogether more frustrating.
Mr Alden’s production – which first appeared in Bordeaux and Madrid, but was revised for…
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