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Details
The Deanery Garden
Church View
Bampton
Oxfordshire
OX18 2LL
England
Programme
Giuseppe Gazzaniga – L'isola d'Alcina
Performers
Thomas Blunt – Conductor
Inna Husieva – soprano
Sarah Chae – soprano
Charlotte Badham – mezzo-soprano
Monwabisi Lindi – tenor
Magnus Walker – tenor
Jonathan Eyers – baritone
Owain Rowlands – baritone
Dafydd Allen – tenor
Bampton Classical Opera
Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
For their summer 2024 production Bampton Classical Opera will present Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s bubbling comedy L’isola d’Alcina, with a libretto by Giovanni Bertati. It will be sung in a new English translation by Gilly French as ‘Alcina’s Island’. Performances will be conducted by Thomas Blunt and directed by Jeremy Gray.
L’isola d’Alcina is loosely based on the character of the sorceress Alcina from Ariosto’s epic Orlando furioso – an Englishman, Frenchman, Spaniard, Italian and German get washed up on Alcina’s magical island where the seductive and beautiful sorceress (although 800 years old) has a habit of discarding her lovers and turning them into rocks or animals.
Gazzaniga (1743-1818), wrote at least 50 operas, of which L’isola d’Alcina was one of the most successful. His most famous was Don Giovanni, 1787 (staged by Bampton in 1997 and 2004, and performed at the Royal College of Music in November 2023). The first performance of L’isola d’Alcina was at Teatro San Moisè, Venice in 1772, and it was widely seen in Europe until 1785. There were performances at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket, London in 1776 and 1777 – but probably not in England since then.
In this effervescent and fast-moving opera set on a tropical desert island paradise, Bertati and Gazzaniga pit the (perhaps limited) wits of a motley collection of Europeans against the dangerous amorous snares of the insatiable Alcina. Fortunately the Europeans are assisted by two charming but disloyal resident nymphs, with whom they eventually escape from the island. Much fun is made of the linguistic confusions of the shipwrecked group, in contrast to the passion and discontent of the ageless but perhaps weary sorceress. The music is fluent, cheerful and graceful, propelling the story forward with restless energy.
The wonderful cast includes four singers returning to Bampton: Sarah Chae and Owain Rowlands (Salieri ‘At the Venice Fair’ 2023); Jonathan Eyers (Haydn ‘Fool Moon’ 2022). Inna Husieva, Charlotte Badham, Monwabisi Lindi, Simon Brown, and Magnus Walker are making their company débuts.
Bampton Classical Opera was a finalist in the Rediscovered Opera category of the 2020 International Opera Awards for Stephen Storace Gli sposi malcontenti (Bride and Gloom), and last year’s production of Salieri La fiera di Venezia (At the Venice Fair) was shortlisted for the 2023 Awards.
The delightful Deanery Garden at Bampton provides a charming and picturesque venue for open-air opera, with an excellent natural acoustic.
