Alcina - the sorceresses of love and vocal virtuosity

Handel's operas are usually long, and, maybe (for some), too repetitive or a bit boring. That was not the case with Alcina (performed at the Royal Opera House) - opera about the sweet sorceresses, who enchanted every man circulating her and, when she decided that their love was over, she turned them into an animal or a stone or another piece of nature. "It was quite something", I've heard people saying and, I can honestly say that it was brilliant and spellbound. Though it had three acts, which lasted between 50 - 75 min each, we didn't notice the time pass. There were moments of absolute silence from the public because we were hanging on every note or breath. That was simply because they were so engaged with their respective roles, not in an "over the top" manner, but in a very subtle way, expressing the characters' feelings through absolute vocal and musical mastery. It would be difficult to point out just one or two soloists, standing out from the others because they were all so brilliant. The role of Alcina was confided to Lisette Oropesa, one of the world's leading coloratura sopranos and this role just added another start to her already full operatic sky. She delivered up to perfection. Equally breathtaking was Emily D'Angelo, singing the role of Ruggiero. Her beautiful mezzo-soprano and incredibly mastered breath technique called for huge applauses. Mary Bevan (singing Morgana) delivered a handful of difficult and passionate arias too. One of the most famous aria from this opera, "Tornami a vagheggiar" was performed with Bollywood energy and sexiness. The same engagement and mastery apply to a dark mezzo-soprano Varduhi Abrahamyan, performing the role of Bradamante.

Men's roles were not less important or weaker. The masculine yet perfectly controlled tenor of Rupert Charlesworth (Oronte) was very pleasing indeed and the deep bass of José Coca Loza (Atlante) surprised with perfectly executed deep tones. The big applause was also dedicated to a young boy Rafael Flutter, singing the role of Oberto. The production also did its trick. It was esthetically pleasing, proposing nice, bucolic and allegoric-like scenes, colourful costumes and a very clever idea of how to spell the magic (which in this production was through a giant perfume). There was humour, seriousness and a little bit of eroticism, but not too much - everything was balanced and it did not overpower the singers or their characters. The orchestra was another important element, led by Christian Curnyn, accompanying the performers with precision and musicality. In the last act, the period instruments were added, such as "theorbo" which helped to convey a richer, true baroque sound.

One occasionally sees performances when one thinks that it was pure beauty and perfection. Well, this was certainly one of them. This was the Royal Opera House at its best. By the way, speaking about perfection - Kenneth MacMillan's ballet Mayerling (performing at the Royal Opera House until the end of November), is another unforgettable experience - full of beautiful choreography, strong characters, deep emotions and dark passion. This ballet changed my mind about ballet choreographies (I first saw it in 2017) and I have been following the Royal ballet ever since.