Handel: Alcina

Starring: Alan Hacker, Catherine Naglestad, Jnos Darvas, Staatsorchester Stuttgart Director: Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito Original UK Premiere: 1999 Dvd Release: 4th March, 2002 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Widescreen, Region 0 Encoding Subtitled In: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

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George Frideric Handel, was a German -born British Baroque music composer. His best-known work is Messiah, an oratorio set to texts from the King James Bible. It is customarily performed at Christmas time. He was also deeply influental on many composers after him, including Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven. Handel was born at Halle in Prussia & died in London. At the age of seven he was a skillful performer on the harpsichord & organ & at nine he began to compose music. In 1702, in obedience to his fathers wishes, he began the study of law at the University of Halle, but the following year he abandoned law for music & accepted a position as violinist in the orchestra of the opera-house at Hamburg. Here his first two operas, Almira & Nero, were produced early in 1705. Two other early operas, Daphne & Florindo, were produced at Hamburg in 1708. During the years 1707 - 09 Handel traveled & studied in Italy. His Rodrigo was produced at Florence in 1707 & his Agrippina at Venice in 1708. Two oratorios, La Resurrezione & Il Trionfo del Tempo, were produced at Rome in 1709 & 1710, respectively.

Alcina is an opera composed by George Frideric Handel for his first season at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. It premiered on April 16, 1735. The librettos author is unknown, but the plot is taken from Ludovico Ariosto s Orlando furioso, an epic poem set in the time of Charlemagne s wars against Islam. The plot of Alcina concerns the sixth & seventh cantos of Orlando furioso, which tell of a knight, Ruggiero, enslaved by the sorceress Alcina. Bradamante, Ruggieros fiancee & her companion Melisso rescues Ruggiero by breaking Alcinas enchantments, in the process freeing her former lovers whom she had turned into beasts, rocks, waves & sand. Like Handels other works in the opera seria genre, Alcina fell into obscurity; after a revival in Brunswick in 1738 it was not performed again until a production in Leipzig in 1928. The Australian soprano Joan Sutherland sang the role in a production by Franco Zeffirelli in which she made her debut at La Fenice in February 1960 & at the Dallas Opera in November of that year.

DVD Extras: Alcina comes to disc with an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 picture that is clear & detailed, while the PCM stereo audio is natural & is recorded with good presence. Other than various optional subtitles, including English, extras are entirely absent. Within the booklet is a brief biography of Handel, background notes on Alcina & a synopsis, but nothing on the artists or performance.

Produced with the cast of a year-2000 Stuttgart stage version, this performance of Handels 1735 opera Alcina has been specially shot for home viewing without the audience present . Director Janos Darvas enhances the usual low theatre illumination with stronger television-friendly lighting to provide more detail, & he also takes his cameras much closer to the artists than live performance permits, offering film-style close-ups that greatly enhance the drama. With just eight performers & an essentially static set, though some intriguing interesting things are done with a large mirror, this intimate approach proves an enormous advantage.

Handels complex tale of intense romantic entanglement on the island of the enchantress Alcina focuses as much on high-voltage acting as powerful music-making. The 20th-century costumes are initially disconcerting, but soon become part of a psychologically intense world where time seems out of joint & charged with otherwise-unimaginable emotional possibilities. As Alcina, Catherine Naglestad gives an extraordinary performance, both strikingly passionate & deeply sensual, her revealing costuming being just the most obvious sign of a production intent on the erotic. Though Naglestad dominates, each performer offers memorable characterisation & fine singing.

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