Handel: Alcina [DVD] [2011] [NTSC]

This production is a mixed bag. On balance, the performances are good to very good. Anja Harteros as Alcina is fantastic - "Ah, mio cor" gets deservedly enthusiastic applause from the audience, and she's equally effective in the other big set-pieces (E.g. "mi restano le lagrime"). Veronica Cangemi is a wonderful Morgana, with the type of clear, agile voice that is perfect for this character and this music. And that choirboy singing Oberto KILLS. Wherever they found him, I hope there are more such young singers forthcoming.

And then there's Vesselina Kasarova, whose voice is definitely an acquired taste. I have not acquired it yet. She was a great Sesto in a Salzburg production of La Clemenza di Tito and I don't remember being puzzled by her voice in that instance. But having listened to this Alcina I can see why some people love her voice, others viscerally dislike it, and still others (me included) just find it . . . intriguingly weird.

And w/r/t intriguingly weird: this is probably the best description of her acting as Ruggiero. I don't know whether this is weird directing or weird acting, but it comes off as mannered and a little kooky.

But in general, this production sounds good. And it looks good. The opener indicates that the drama is an evening of fun staged by some eighteenth-century aristocrats, and the scene is part drawing-room, part bright blue sky and sea grass. It's pretty. The lighting is nice, costumes are both attractive and make sense - nothing wrong here.

The big thing about this production, though, is that one ends up not caring all that much. Nothing appears to be at stake. The play-within-a-play conceit takes the edge off the drama, and this is not an opera that has a lot of edge to begin with. (Also: the fact that without reading the liner notes you wouldn't know that the aristocrat staging this play-within-a-play was the Duchess of Devonshire indicates that this detail is a little bit pointless.) There is no sense of urgency - the play-within-a-play concept suspends our disbelief for us, and the result is that it's not very compelling. We know that they know that Alcina's magic isn't real. Had the concept been a play within a play that got out of hand and the characters became caught up in relationships that turned all too real - a 'real' enchantment -- then it might work. But 1) then the Duchess of Devonshire racket would probably have to go: it'd have to be less specific 18th century nobles to whom this happened and 2) this would be fairly difficult to get across without some very clever staging and even cleverer acting.

So. I am glad to be able to watch a DVD of this that is easy on the ears and reasonably entertaining, but I'm still waiting for one that's really gripping.

Musically, the performance is vibrant, delivering both the energy and the poignancy of the score. The credit goes to Marc Minkowski as the conductor. His love of the music and his belief in it shine through and the musicians follow him.

Handel is difficult to stage because with most of his operas, the director has to overcome the romance-novel libretto. Adrian Noble offers an eye-catching and sumptuous but ultimately unimaginative stage: the colours are gorgeous and the lighting luxurious but the emotional range expressed is narrow and the direction uncompelling. The liner notes by Donna Lean illustrate the discrepancy between the music and the stage direction. For Lean, Alcina, `well, its all about sex, isn't it?' whereas for Minkowski, `Alcina is all about love--all forms of love'. I wish that Noble had trusted the communicative power of the music. When he does, as in Alcina's `Ah! mio cor!', the impact is unforgettable. Alas, he often does not.

For lovers of Handel, this Alcina is better both musically and visually than the other version available on DVD today. There is still ample room for a performance in which the stage director goes beyond the surface pleasure of the music and dares to explore its full range of emotional and political possibilities.

This production is a very successful one. If one watches the DVD right from the beginning, one would not miss the fact that the production meant the opera to be a 'play within a play'; and that Ruggiero is actually portrayed by a woman instead of a castrato, and why there are presence of 'men' on the stage apart from the actors and actresses.

The opera itself is splendidly performed. Of the entire performing cast, three sopranos stand out.
Firstly, the boy soprano Alois Muhlbacher as Oberto is simply the BEST portrayal of this characther. He surpasses all the previous sopranos, let alone that on stage, he fits in the role absolutely. Alois sings gloriously. Not only does he own a marvellous voice, but that he also knows precisely how to use his voice. What is even more jaw dropping is that even in his tender age, he is able to perform with dramatic conviction - his vocal acting is truly superb and in the rank of the adult top singers in the field.
As Morgana, Argentinian soprano Veronica Cangemi is clearly more than competent - she pulls off all the arias with real aplomb, and acts with total assurance and conviction. Arguably the best ever Morgana.
Last but by no means the least, Anja Harteros in the title role proves that she is the current reigning Alcina.
Tall and elegant, with a fully commanding stage presence, Harteros owns a lush and fully expressive timbre that really suits this role to a "T". Her vocal range throughout all the passages of Alcina is beautifully flexible and highly effective, at the same time movingly rendered in that she imbues her singing and acting with high emotional voltage, and each scene of Alcina in this performance by her is truly exemplary.
The trouser role of Bradamante is competently handled by Hommerstrom, but it does not appear to be her best performance on this particular night of this recording.
The only possible query one may have in this entirely exceptional cast is Ruggiero, portrayed dramatically very effectively by Vesselina Kasarova, but vocally more controversial.
Kasarova virtually 'shifts gears' in each of the arias' differing registers, and this makes listening to her singing tiring after a good while.
However, it would be a gross overstatement to demounce this wonderful production solely for Kasarova's special vocal treatment of Ruggiero.
The scenary and costumes are elegant and tasteful, and all in all, this is a DVD that deserves viewing on top of all others of the same opera.