Admin

Bampton Classical Opera

Conductor

Thomas Blunt

Director

Jeremy Gray

Orchestra

Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera

Alcina's Island

Bampton

United Kingdom

Deanery Garden

Westonbirt

Westonbirt School Orangery Theatre

The Barn at Old Walland, Wadhurst

London

St John's Smith Square

Alcina's Island: L'Isola d'Alcina Gazzaniga

Public

Larissa Andrea Pereira

Approved

Alcina’s Island is a 3-act dramma giocoso (comic opera), loosely based on the character of the sorceress Alcina from Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando furioso, which was also the source for Handel’s far more serious and literary Alcina. The successful Venetian composer Gazzaniga wrote at least 50 operas, of which L’isola d’Alcina was one of the most widely performed - his most famous score was Don Giovanni, 1787, performed by Bampton in 1997 and 2004. In this effervescent and fast-moving opera set on a tropical desert island paradise, Bertati and Gazzaniga pit the (perhaps limited) wits of a motley collection of Europeans against the dangerous amorous snares of the insatiable Alcina. An Englishman, Frenchman, Spaniard, Italian and German all get washed up on Alcina’s magical island where the seductive and beautiful sorceress (although 800 years old) has a habit of discarding her lovers and turning them into rocks, animals or trees. As they grapple with the romantic appeal of Alcina, the Europeans are assisted by two charming but disloyal resident nymphs, with whom they eventually escape from the island. Much fun is made of the linguistic confusions of the shipwrecked group, in contrast to the passion and discontent of the ageless but perhaps weary sorceress. The music is fluent, cheerful and graceful, propelling the story forward with restless energy.

English

Alcina's Island by Gazzaniga, From (2024/2024), Conductor Thomas Blunt, Deanery Garden, Bampton, United Kingdom

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