Alcina

Handel’s last great and truly successful opera, Alcina (1735) remains popular today due to the power and emotional range of its two leading roles and the fantasy elements of its plot. His third and last drama based on Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando furioso (1516), the opera is set on an enchanted island where the sorceress Alcina has lured (and fallen in love with) the knight Ruggiero. With the help of his betrothed, Bradamante, Ruggiero breaks Alcina’s spell over him and destroys her power. Handel’s technique of characterisation involved building up a composite portrait one aria at a time. Over the course of her six arias (two in each act) Alcina goes from an experienced seductress (“Di cor mio”) to a betrayed lover caught between heartbreak and fury (“Ah! mio cor”), before finally recognising defeat and descending into self-pity (“Mi restano le Lagrime”). The dramatic highpoint, at the end of Act II, is the accompanied recitative “Ah! Ruggiero crudel” where Alcina despairs at the loss of her powers in music of alarming instability. Ruggiero’s character also undergoes a fundamental transformation over the course of his six arias—as his confidence increases. His final arias are vividly contrasted: “Verdi prati”, a farewell to Alcina’s island, is exquisitely simple, while “Sta nell'Ircana” is a heroic, bravura aria in the latest Italian style with ringing high horns.