Jacquelyn Stucker is the reluctant bride in “Ariodante” (c) Marc Brenner
Georg Frideric Handel: Ariodante
Royal Opera House, London, December 9, 2025
Characterisation in Dutch director Jesske Mijnssen’s debut production for the Royal Opera, Handel’s Ariodante, is crystal clear. Polinesso – leather suit, cigarettes: baddie. Lurcanio – tweeds and knits: solid chap. Ginevra – garments everywhere, rude to staff: spoilt brat.
Crystalline too is the singing of this long score, with its jewel in the crown, fine fellow Ariodante’s “Scherza, infida”, sung when he believes his beloved Ginevra to be unfaithful. The couple have been heading for the altar at top speed as the health of Ginevra’s father, the King of Scotland (don’t ask me) fails, and the succession seems assured. This will happen through the son-in-law-elect, of course, not the daughter. For McKing is cursed with only girls. And it is younger daughter Dalinda who, besotted with jealous Polinesso, collaborates in deceiving Ariodante.
It takes three hours to set up and unravel this knot, on Etienne Pluss’s set which is stately, classical and covetably sophisticated, but whose dark recesses gradually open to the light as truths are revealed, Fabrice Kebour’s sumptuous lighting design adding depth and mood. With a handsome cast sporting Uta Meenen’s sleek costume designs, the whole production is very easy on the eye.
The King of Scotland’s household. (c) Marc Brenner
Easier still on the ear, thanks to a beautifully well-balanced cast led by Canadian-Italian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo in the title role. As Ginevra’s clean-limbed suitor (whether he deserves better would make a different opera), Ariodante gets the killer aria, bitterly egging on his apparently unfaithful bride-to-be over the sobbing strings of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera. Vocally, if not in personality terms, the couple are a perfect fit, Jacquelyn Stucker’s soaring, untrammelled soprano as pure as Ginevra, however spoilt, proves to be.
But there is a twist: director Mijnssen detects that a woman wronged, fought to the death over, and contemplating death herself does not bounce back heedlessly into the bridal veil and train. The cheery chorus may want a Hello! magazine happy ending but life isn’t like that, and for all its initial perfection, the world we inhabit in this Ariodante becomes increasingly asymmetric. Always putting things off balance is French counter-tenor Christophe Dumaux’ scheming, smoking, louche Polinesso, in a stupendous Royal Opera debut. Polinesso’s heartlessness hovers in the high notes that graze airily above the feelings of others.
In sharp contrast, tenor Ed Lyon’s initially anxious Lucarnio doggedly pursues the truth, and proves unexpectedly ruthless in a fetchingly choreographed fencing match that he nearly botches. Making yet another house debut, Cuban American soprano Elena Villalón is hugely impressive in technique and characterisation with her conflicted sister Dalinda, too enamoured of slimy Polinesso to pull back from his dastardly plan. Sonorous bass Peter Kellner as the ailing king gives a masterclass in diction.
Ariodante (Emily D’Angelo) and Polinesso (Christophe Dumaux) (c) Marc Brenner
Stefano Montanari, directing from the violin, makes the tempo fit the mood at every turn, but it was frustrating not to have at least the continuo players named in an ensemble creating at times extraordinary colours and effects.
This is a co-production with Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg and Opéra de Lausanne. It’s an exceptional package. Intelligently funded and directed, it has style, musicality and meaning. It isn’t always like this. Three hours? Pfff. I could have listened to this all night.
Ariodante is sung in Italian with English surtitles. Further performances are at the Royal Opera House, London on 11, 14, 17, 19, and 21 December