English Concert, Erin Helyard Conductor; Olivia Fuchs Director; Eleanor Bull Designer; Ben Pickersgill Lighting Designer. Tim Morgan Amadigi; Rowan Pierce, Oriana; Hilary Cronin, Melissa; James Hall ,Dardano
I saw this in concert form a couple of years ago at St Martins in the Fields in London, but have never been to a staged performance. I therefore came to this performance with some anticipation – plus the BIF operatic showings are usually great fun! I was also impressed, listening to Handel’s Partenope at ENO in December, by Jake Ingbar’s voice, who at the time of booking was scheduled to sing Amadigi. As it happens the title role had changed hands by the time of the first performance (which this was)…….
Amadigi di Gaula is one of those top-drawer Handel operas which has 6 or 7 attractive arias with tunes which buzz around your head afterwards – the Act 1 aria (Ah Spietato!), the aria in the fountain, the two concluding songs by Oriana and Amadigi (Destero dell’empia Dite), the lament by Dardano (Pena tiranna io sento al core), and the aria with recorders for Amadigi
The story is, for a Handel opera, refreshingly simple. Melissa fancies Amadigi, who fancies Oriana, who is also fancied by Dardano. In the end, Dardano is done away with, Melssa fails, and Oriana and Amadigi live happily ever after. The production concept here was of a Love Island set up -which makes a fair amount of sense. In design terms, following that concept, In the first act there’s a huge pink heart suspended above the stage saying ‘Melissa’s Island’, and the overture has a mimed sequence where Melissa is preparing for filming. There’s also a (very) large model of a pink flamjngo, large palm trees, an inflatable beach toy flamingo and an inflatable paddling pool (for the fountain) – you get the picture……… At the beginning, and to an extent throughout, there were also TV cameras. lighting stands and various crew members. In Act 2, the scene was darker -Melissa’s cavern I guess – with a lit up dressing table, costume rack and swivel chairs. The flamingo etc are there in the background though……..It has to be said that the Love Island concept is not followed through particularly rigorously – given that Melissa seems to be the TV host, how does she end up so humiliated? And the camera crew barely makes an appearance between the opening and the closing scene (though Orgando, uncle of Oriana and a sorcerer himself, who is supposed to descend from the sky in a chariot and bless the union of Amadigi and Oriana is a TV executive type, and Dardano, rather than being killed, goes off in a huff with his wheelie-suitcase. Dardano and Amadigi do a lot of posturing for the camera at first, but that then goes away. So I wasn’t totally convinced by the concept – but there again, I have never seen Love Island and nor I suspect had most of the predominantly elderly audience, so I may have missed connections and allusions. Costumes were appropriate – the men’s costumes were mainly beach wear, Melissa had a glittery trouser suit and an obvious red wig; Oriana had rather extraordinary piled-up blonde hair and a glamorous red dress and high heels. Melissa at the end gets rid of her red wig – so maybe she was meant to be part of the action, but now has reverted to her TV host persona…all a bit unclear.
In singing and acting terms, the two women were better than the men – Hilary Cronin had a large supple voice, managing well the coloratura elements of her role, and a brilliant slinky stage persona that was both funny and creepy – just as a sorceress should be. Rowan Pierce has a string of impressive ‘young artist’ credentials and, again, had a forward clear voice. She played the slightly dumb-blonde role to perfection. By contrast, Tim Morgan didn’t quite have the vocal power to project Amadigi’s emotions effectively and he also looked awkward on stage on occasion.James Hall, who I have heard singing Handel with ETO, was more forward in voice and his above-mentioned lament was very effective. But, again, at times he looked awkward, The English Concert gave a biting, sharp account of the orchestral music, with some beautiful woodwind playing.
Unusually for the sedate BIF audience there were a couple of boos when the director and team took a bow. I thought that was unfair. This was a good show, and Handel operas are tricky terrain
John's musical journey 