Alcina

Composer : George Frideric Handel
Librettist : Antonio Fanzaglia
Opera Year : 1735

Roles in this Opera include :
Alcina
Bradamante
Melisso
Morgana
Oberto
Oronte
Ruggiero

Productions of this Opera are listed below:
Alcina

Reviews of this Opera are listed below:
Alcina and Falstaff audition review
Alcina review

Publications related to this Opera are listed below:
Alcina vocal score

ALCINA

Italian text anonymous, adapted from the libretto for Riccardo Broschi’s opera L’Isola di Alcina (1728), derived from Cantos VI and VII of Ariosto’s chivalrous romance, Orlando furioso.

Defence of Operas
The poem of Alcina is finely set to Musick by the inimitable Mr Handel, and is taken from Orlando Furioso , Book 6 and 7. The several Characters in the Fable convey most useful Lessons; it figures to us the violence of youthful Passions, which hurries us beyond the Bounds of Reason; and makes good the old Proverb, Repentance treads on the Heels of Sin; it proves that neither the Counsel of Friends, nor the example of others, can stop the giddy head-strong Youth from the Chase of imaginary or fleeting Pleasures, which infallibly lead them to cruel Reflections, and too late Repentance. The character of Alcina’s Beauty and Inconstancy, proves the short Duration of all sublunary Enjoyments. Rogero, the hero of the Opera, being attack’d by monstrous Forms, figures the Vices which continually war upon us, and his resisting them for some Time, shews the first struggling of a virtuous Mind . . . Alcina’s Change into Deformity by Virtue of an enchanted Ring, which Melissa (Melisso), a Sorceress had given Rogero, figures to us Remorse of Conscience awakening Reason, which strips vicious Pleasures of their Pain and gaudy Trappings, shews them in their innate Deformity and causes our Abhorrence.
Gentleman’s Magazine (July 1735), reprinted from Universal Spectator (5 July 1735).

Alcina herself is neither heroine nor villain. In Hollywood-speak she would be described as ‘all woman’ (with something of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire). She lives for love, but has clearly been frustrated in her search for a lasting relationship. Like many lonely women, she uses her wiles (in her case, the power of magic) to cling on to her men. Those whom she rejects, or who reject her, end up in her zoo, her arbour, or her rockery. She dotes on Ruggiero, and even when he is freed of the spell that has bound him to her and erased the memory of his betrothed, Bradamante, her affection almost overrides her outrage at being dumped. Handel, by presenting her in all her complex, contradictory moods, as a seasoned seductress with an unhappy track record rather than a cornered tigress or a wicked witch, ensures that she retains the audience’s sympathy right up to the moment when her hold is finally broken at the end of the opera.

Alcina may be no villain: but neither is Ruggiero (Rogero in Ariosto’s original) much of a hero. Bradamante, who dresses up as a warrior and sails off to Alcina’s island to prise him out of her clutches, is a far feistier personality than her fiancé. Unable to sort out his feelings, Ruggiero is pulled this way and that between the two women, and despite the gorgeous and richly varied music he is given to sing, he never totally convinces us that he is his own man. It is almost as if Handel identified himself with Alcina – Mary Pendarves, who attended that first rehearsal, may have had the same feeling when she wrote that “Whilst Mr. Handel was playing his part” (at the harpsichord), “I could not help thinking him a necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments”.

THE STORY

On an enchanted, frozen, island lives Alcina, the grand-daughter of Circe, the sorceress whose bed Odysseus shared for a year on the way back from Troy, according to Homeric mythology. Alcina shares many of the practices of her grandmother, notably a fondness for turning people, especially discarded lovers, into objects animal, vegetable and mineral. She shares her palace with her flighty sister, Morgana, and her current lover Ruggiero, a knight whose memory of his betrothed, Bradamante, she has obliterated by magic.

Into this ménage, or ménagerie, arrive Bradamante, disguised as her twin brother Ricciardo, and her tutor Melisso (a sort of young Gandalf). They are intent on rescuing Ruggiero. Morgana greets them, and instantly falls for ‘Ricciardo’ (‘Laughing or smiling ..’ ). Alcina is entertaining her friends and subjects: the guests appear (‘Bliss resides within these portals..’) and greet Alcina and Ruggiero, whom Bradamante quickly spots. Melisso approaches Alcina, who invites them to stay and asks Ruggiero to show them round her estate (‘Speak and tell them how much I love you..’)

Enter the young boy Oberto, hunting for his father Astolfo, whom Alcina has transmogrified into a snake. He asks for Bradamante’s and Melisso’s support (‘If you help me find my father..’). Bradamante then confronts Ruggiero: ‘don’t you know me?’, she asks, and when he says she reminds him of a man called Ricciardo, she tells him that that is who she is – ‘the brother of your beloved Bradamante’. ‘Oh, no, I’m Alcina’s lover’, he replies, and expresses his irritation at the boring stupidity of his guests (‘You make me laugh..’).

In storms Oronte, Alcina’s security chief, accusing Bradamante of trying to seduce his girl-friend Morgana, and challenging him to a duel. Morgana tells Bradamante to take no notice – she’ll deal with him. Bradamante addresses both (to Oronte ‘I see you’re jealous..’, to Morgana ‘Your heart distracts you..’). Oronte and Morgana quarrel, and when Ruggiero arrives in a state because Alcina has disappeared, Oronte reckons one jealous boyfriend can help another. He then makes matters worse by suggesting that Alcina has fallen for Ricciardo/Bradamante (‘You are crazy to trust a lady..’). Alcina protests her innocence when Ruggiero accuses her of being unfaithful (‘Yes, you know me..’). When Ruggiero then tells Bradamante he hates her, she reveals to him who she really is – but, still under Alcina’s spell, he can’t recognise her (‘I know these glances..’). Melisso ticks her off for giving herself away. Morgana rushes in and tells her ‘beloved’ Ricciardo/ Bradamante to flee because Alcina is about to ‘animalise’ her. Bradamante pretends she loves Morgana in order to get Alcina to back off: Morgana is ecstatic (‘Come take me in your arms..’)

Ruggiero is moping: Melisso (who has his own line in magic) appears as Ruggiero’s old teacher, Atlante, and upbraids him for his cowardice and unmanliness. He gives him a magic ring, and when Ruggiero puts it on, the truth is revealed about Alcina’s world (‘what contrivance has released me..’?). Melisso reappears as himself, and Ruggiero asks him to tell Bradamante he adores her (‘she’ll be relieved’ says Melisso, drily). Melisso hatches a plot with him to ensure their escape (‘Think of the woman who weeps in mourning..’). When Bradamante and Ruggiero meet, Bradamante is distressed to find that Ruggiero is still not free of Alcina’s spell (‘In fury I call for revenge on his heart..’). As the curtain falls, Ruggiero remains confused (‘He bewilders my affections with a likeness to my angel..’)

Morgana and Ruggiero join forces in stopping Alcina from turning ‘Ricciardo’ into a wild beast in order to appease Ruggiero’s jealousy. Morgana tells Ruggiero that ‘Love has him sighing but don’t be troubled’, and Alcina that ‘Cupid enchants him, but not for you’. Ruggiero then begins to carry out Melisso’s plan. He asks Alcina leave to revive his knightly instincts by going off into the woods to hunt. She agrees: ‘but not for long’ – she’s scared to let him go. Ruggiero makes a promise: ’To my beloved, now and for ever, I shall be honest, faithful and true (but not to you)..’.

Oberto is still looking for his father, and is unmoved when Alcina tells him to cheer up. No matter that she’s looked after him like her own son, it’s Dad he wants. She feels sorry for him and makes him a false promise that he’ll see his father soon. Oberto is excited (‘My heart is pounding..’). Oronte now arrives with the news that Ruggiero is planning to leave the island with the help of the treacherous guests: Alcina is horrified, and swears vengeance. The aria she sings at this point is the emotional fulcrum of the opera (‘Ah, my heart! You are rejected!..)

Oronte taunts Morgana with the treachery of her new lover, and when she flounces off in disbelief, tells himself to beat her at her own game (‘My mad infatuation, and not her lovely face..’). Bradamante comforts Oberto: she assures him that his father (who is also her cousin!) will soon reappear: she urges him to keep it secret that the enchantress who turned him into a python is going to be defeated. Ruggiero begs forgiveness from Bradamante, and they exchange endearments: but she is scared that Alcina will find them and urges flight. Morgana, who has overheard this exchange, is furious and rounds on them both. Left alone with Bradamante, Ruggiero sings a tender pastoral (‘Verdant pastures, leafy woodlands, all your beauty will decay..’), as he turns his back with a tinge of regret on the scene of his recent happiness.

The mood darkens: Alcina is tormented and furious (‘Ah, Ruggiero, so cruel, you never loved me..’). She still adores him and is bent on using her magic to get him back. But it fails her: ‘Vanquished, deluded Alcina, what now is left you’. The daughters of Circe whom she begs to bring back her lover fail to respond (‘Ghostly phantoms, I know you hear me, you flutter round me, but you avoid me..’).

At the beginning of the final scene, after a brief Sinfonia, Oronte and Morgana are still behaving like the lovers in a Midsummer Night’s Dream: but at the end of another spat, Morgana tells him ‘If I’ve hurt you my love, will you forgive me?’ (‘Believe the pain I suffer, you are the one I long for!..’). Oronte doesn’t trust her an inch, but finds her irresistible (‘Just a moment of contentment turns a lover’s pain to pleasure..’)

Ruggiero and Alcina bump into each other – a bad moment. ‘Have you abandoned me?’ asks Alcina. ‘Duty calls’, replies Ruggiero, like Don Jose summoned back to barracks. Alcina doesn’t believe a word of it. Ruggiero admits that he’s leaving her for his betrothed. Alcina’s desperation and anger mount. She finally tells him what’s in store for him unless he placates her (‘When back to me you fly with fetters on your feet..’).

Melisso, Ruggiero and Bradamante have a fight on their hands: ‘the island is surrounded by fighting ships and wild enchanted monsters’. Magic is needed to prevail: wounded and delirious, Melisso calls for the shield of the Gorgon and the winged horse. Ruggiero, still with love on his mind, is determined to confront his adversary (‘Deep in the forest, the angry tigress, fiercely defiant, awaits the hunter..’). Melisso tries to persuade Bradamante to go to where their ship is hidden; but she refuses to leave till every spell is broken and every victim released (‘On souls that keep faith the heavens look kindly..’).

Oronte tells Alcina that Ruggiero has triumphed, and that all her warriors are ‘silent corpses’. She is weary and desolate (‘My tears alone are left to me, and though I pray to heaven the gates are locked and barred to me..’). Islanders greet a new era (‘A wonderful procession will soon escape oppression..’). Oberto senses his father’s presence in the form of an apparently benign python, but Alcina uses her powers once more, and orders him to use her dagger to kill the creature. He refuses. ‘Then give it to me and I’ll do it myself’, she says – but with all the bravado of a fourteen-year-old, he tells her he’d rather stick it in her chest (‘Murderer! How well I know that python is my father..’).

Bradamante, Ruggiero and Alcina have a final emotional tug of war, expressing their feelings in an exquisite trio. ‘I bid farewell to jealous feelings’, says Alcina. Ruggiero is wary (‘There’s deceit in your tearful sighing..’), backed up by Bradamante (‘I know you’re lying! Don’t expect us to forgive..’). Ruggiero, bent on setting Alcina’s victims free without bloodshed, hands his sword to Oronte. He is determined to shatter the urn which holds the source of Alcina’s power. Bradamante begs him to let her do it, but Morgana stops her. Finally, Melisso, Oronte and Bradamante unite in urging Ruggiero to smash the urn. He does so, and Alcina and Morgana are no more. The people whom Alcina transformed into animals, trees and rocks are restored to life (‘From the night of sombre blindness, whose great kindness has released us to our freedom, at what cost?..’), and all rejoice at the transformation in a final chorus (‘After so much bitter sadness we can feel a new revival..’)

Alastair Macgeorge
Hampstead Garden Opera