Lisette Oropesa in the title role and Emily d’Angelo as Ruggiero in Alcina/ Photo: Ian Hippolyte
Royal Opera/David Bates
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 15 September 2026
Like the Venus flytrap in her greenhouse, the eponymous enchantress Alcina snaps up the unwitting and unwilling with one stylish move, in Richard Jones’s amusing and attractive production of Handel’s opera.
Soprano Lisette Oropesa, reprising the title role from 2022, and despite suffering a cold on opening night, is bewitching in every sense – sleek, witty, mercurial and dazzling in her vocal flights. A spritz of Alcina fragrance from an outsize bottle, and puritans are conjured into obedient animals. Also under her spell is Ruggiero, whose wife Bradamante ventures on to Alcina’s island, in male disguise, to reclaim her husband.
Mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor as Bradamante is a new addition to the original cast, making a very impressive Royal Opera House debut with vocal depth and dexterity and a sure-footed stage presence. Mary Bevan, another returner, is winsome and suitably light as Alcina’s frisky sister Morgana. Her Act One aria “Tornami a vagheggiar” is the opera’s showstopper, delivered trippingly.
Beth Taylor (right) makes an impressive Royal Opera debut/ Photo: Ian Hippolyte
Add to this likeable trio the mezzo-soprano Emily d’Angelo as the errant Ruggiero and you already have a dream cast, even before the neglected lover of Morgana, Oronte, appears in the form of exasperated tenor Ru Charlesworth, in a characterful and vocally fluent performance.
As Oberto, the little son of vanished elder Astolfo (temporarily a lion), treble Thomas Mayes is a mini-match for any of these old hands, his limber voice confidently and skilfully navigating Handel’s score that makes no concessions to youth.
The vivacity of Handel’s 1735 opera, a hit in that year despite rapidly changing tastes in music, is entirely reflected in the warm-hearted set and costume designs of Antony McDonald which are dominated by outsize animal heads – here an inquisitive hare, there an invasive baboon, everywhere an anxiously protective King Charles spaniel. Revival director and movement director Sarah Fahie strikes the perfect balance between Disneyfying these likeable creatures and exploring the dance elements of Handel’s sumptuous score.
Animal magic in Alcina/ Photo: Ian Hippolyte
The dancing doesn’t stop at the footlights. Making his mainstage debut at the Royal Opera House is conductor David Bates. He has already made an impression downstairs in the Linbury Theatre with his Nuova Musica ensemble powering another tremendous Handel opera, Giustino. Now transferring the same rhythmic dynamism to the Orchestra of the Royal Opera, his is a name to make you sit up and book. Next month he makes his English National Opera debut with Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride (6 to 14 November), and in 2027 he conducts Handel’s Serse at Garsington Opera (11 June to 17 July).
With period instruments augmenting the adaptable forces of the resident musicians, the pit is positively jumping.
Musically and dramatically, the winning thing about this production is its ability to paint with a broad brush while putting in meticulous detail and often affectionate jokes, such as the restored puritans’ surprising new bible. But above all it is the skittishness of Oropesa’s Alcina that sends you home with a spring in your step. She casts a spell on everyone.
Alcina is sung in Italian with English surtitles. Further performances until 3 October