Handel's Alcina, Dramma per musica in tre atti (1735)

Staatsorchester Stuttgart, 1999

Conductor: Alan Hacker
Stage Directors: Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito

Catherine Nagletstad - Alcina
Alice Coote - Ruggiero
Helene Schneiderman - Bradamante
Catriona Smith - Morgana
Rolf Romei - Oronte
Michael Ebbecke - Melisso
Claudia Mahnke - Oberto
Heinz Gerger - Astolfo



[img]http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/81/alcinacover.jpg[/img]

A divisive performance of a classic opera, this 1999 performance of Handel's Alcina is a love-it-or-hate-it affair, with reviewers and viewers seldom falling in the middle.  Seldom does the "hate it" crowd criticize the actual music and singing; the complaints revolve around the modernization of the production and the cinematography, which is addressed below.  Despite the notoriety of this performance, as far as I'm aware, this is [i]still[/i] the only home video release of Alcina, and is worth watching once.  Those who fall into the "love it" camp should support the performers and studio by purchasing their own copy of the DVD (which comes with a detailed program, and higher detail than can necessarily be included in this version).

Alcina's plot is rather fantastical; in the original, Alcina is a sorceress who seduces men, turning them into stones and beasts, and keeping them on her island.  She's fallen for the knight Ruggiero, and has him captive on her island, but his lover, Bradamante has come to the island to confront Alcina and rescue him.  The opera was meant to be sensational, with Ruggiero being played by a castrato; a strong woman seducing men and destroying them, her favored man being a knight who calls into question what it means to masculine, and the fates of his original relationship and Alcina... what's not eye-popping about that?

This production is an attempt to modernize the story somewhat.  Obviously, castrati are no longer available, so it is impossible to remain faithful to the original if you wish to address the intriguing themes and topics that it raised.  Ruggiero's gender-bending is handled by having the role played by a woman, which adds new themes of transvestism and lesbianism to the story, and the setting is brought forward in time to some unspecified part of the 20th century; the island is an apartment in a state of decay, the sorceress Alcina is now a seductive woman in clingy cocktail dresses (which become more skimpy as Alcina becomes more desparate).

The modernization either works or doesn't work.  I fall into the "works" camp, as do many other viewers; the modernization is a necessary evil, addressing the impossibility of being faithful to Handel's original work, while retaining fidelity to the exploration of underlying sexual and gender themes, and updating the time and location to something which matches the new themes introduced.  Those who feel that it doesn't work feel that the story has been [i]too[/i] changed from the original (why is an apartment more acceptable than an island), and that the sexual themes are brought too much into the forefront here... the classy subtlety of the original version has become a smutty eroticism in this.

The hyperbole of complaints leads me to be dismissive of them; I've seen this called "smut" and one reviewer claims that the production is "pornographic."  Folks, if you think seeing a woman's breast flash for a few seconds an hour and a half into a 2+ hour opera is "pornography," then you must be awfully disappointed with the whole of western civilization (I hear there are topless statues on government property, too!).  The eroticism of the performance is in glances, in one character holding another.  That's it.  I suppose the mild kissing between Alcina and Ruggiero near the beginning can make some uncomfortable, but this is a pretty chaste staging overall, and I tend to feel that the complaints are from people who believe that a story, once written, must always be performed exactly the same from that point forward.  I suppose these same people also bemoan the lack of castrati to fulfill their desires.

There are virtually no complaints about the actual music and singing.  Some poor reviews suggest simply turning the video off, suggesting that the audio performance is on a par with the best of the existing CDs, and nearly everyone raves about Naglestad and Coote's performances.  These are talented singers in a difficult work.  (Some complaints exist about sound quality, with a less than perfect balancing in the stereo mix at some points... be aware that this is not due to the rip.)  Give this a try, even if you're not fond of modernizing; you may enjoy the performance nonetheless!

screens: http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7081/alcinamkv.jpg