Ah, the opera. It is an otherworldly experience to sit in a hushed, dimly lit theater, gazing at the stage as a hidden orchestra strikes the first stirring chord. The drama is also a cathartic ...

Francesca Caccini’s 1625 work – the earliest surviving opera by a woman – is wildly imaginative, even without the original horse ballet ...

Welcome to Alcina’s island paradise. All men who set foot there fall under her spell, but soon discover it’s all an illusion: Alcina is an enchantress whose island is nothing but a barren wasteland, ...

1 Review: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, Royal Ballet And Opera Alcina is a Baroque masterpiece by George Frideric Handel. The title character, Alcina, is a malicious sorceress who lives on an enchanted ...

George Frideric Handel composed the opera seria, ALCINA, for a 1735 premiere at the London's Theatre Royal. Handel's anonymous librettist based his text on Riccardo Broschi's 1728 Roman libretto for L ...

Eventually the charm of the personalities and the consistency of the staging win over, but it does show how much a conductor’s pacing matters (and probably how the bite of authentic instruments helps ...

In Alcina earthbound reality is hardly anywhere to be seen. We are on a magic island ruled by the enchantress of the title, who disposes of her many lovers by turning them into wild beasts or rocks, ...

Asked what feelings we should go away with when the Musical Arts Center curtain closes at the end of Handel’s opera “Álcina,” stage director Chas Rader-Shieber says: “You should feel more human than ...

Handel’s operas, once exotic rarities, have become more familiar in recent years. However, due to the structure of American opera houses, with their permanent orchestras, it is rare to hear them ...