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- [00:15]
A
Welcome to another edition of Opera for Everyone. I'm your host, Pat Wright, and I'm thrilled to have back with us here Jeff Counts. Welcome, Jeff.
- [00:24]
B
Hi, Pat. It's so great to be back on the show. I'm thrilled.
- [00:27]
A
Yes. This is number two for Jeff, and the last show that we did together was on a very interesting topic and source material.
- [00:36]
B
Well, Pat, you are my closest baroque opera friend.
- [00:39]
A
I'm so flattered by that.
- [00:41]
B
I'm thrilled by it, too. And our conversations are taking on a bit of a theme, because the first time we spoke, it was about Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso.
- [00:50]
A
Yes. And for anyone who's interested, that was episode 130, please be interested.
- [00:56]
B
Yeah, it's a great primer for this discussion, actually.
- [00:58]
A
It is. And we will touch on some of the same characters, some of the same ideas within Baroque opera, but definitely a different opera. And people don't even associate Vivaldi with opera. Typically, no.
- [01:11]
B
And Handel's later career in oratorio and choral music would make you forget that he was also a very prolific opera composer. There's a story to why he shifted, and we can get to that a little later. But I know that this opera is based on some of the same source material as Orlando Furiosa. And of the two of us, you're the only one who's actually made an attempt to read that early 16th century text in translation.
- [01:36]
A
It was originally written in Italian. The 16th century text, which was based on a slightly older piece called Orlando in Love. And Orlando, for medieval literature fans, is the same person as Roland, as in Song of Roland. But there's. There's a lot of predating telling of tales. But Ariosto, the person who wrote the source material, which is directly responsible for Orlando Furioso, that was the name of his text, the Vivaldi piece that we talked about on episode 130. And now today, the text of the libretto for the Handel piece that we're going to talk about today, Alcina. Same characters, same source material. But, yes, I did enjoy reading some of that in English. It's complicated. It's layered. It reads like a piece of literature that has come about from multiple angles with all these characters and their different exploits. But honestly, I think there are hundreds of other operas in there, and there are other operas that focus on different characters here, but it really is a story about the knights of Charlemagne, these paladins, and some of their friends, colleagues, lovers, and how that all plays out in the challenges that they face. And after all, in the Medieval period. We love a story about a knight.
- [03:01]
B
A knight and his maiden. It's. It's the stuff dreams are made of. And operas, as it turns out.
- [03:07]
A
As it turns out. Well, Jeff, we really just launched into our conversation because we're both so excited about this opera, but I need to give you a proper introduction. Jeff Counts is the general manager of the Grand Teton Music Festival, which is just a gem here, summertime music festival. And you do other things as well that are so wonderfully impressive. First of all, Khol, beloved to all of us. You are the film critic. I am for Khol. And you also have your very own podcast.
- [03:37]
B
I do. When I was working at Utah Symphony, Utah Opera, I founded a podcast there called the Ghost Light, which if you don't know what a ghost light is, it's the light you leave on in the middle of the stage to keep people from falling in the pit, but also ostensibly to keep ghosts away because every theater's got one.
- [03:54]
A
Well, you can't be too careful with that kind of thing.
- [03:57]
B
You absolutely can't. Whether you believe in it or not, prevention is an ounce of cure, right?
- [04:01]
A
Sure, sure.
- [04:03]
B
But this Ghostlight podcast that I founded at Utah Symphony, Utah Opera ten years ago was an interview podcast, and I have since transitioned to having a co host, Carol Anderson. She comes from the opera world, I come from the symphony world. So we bring our two brains to this together, and it's really been a joy.
- [04:18]
A
Ten years running, symphony and opera you're discussing. That's wonderful. And do you want to tell us anything more about the Grand Teton Music Festival?
- [04:26]
B
The Grand Teton Music Festival, as you said, is a jewel of the Tetons and of this valley. We run for eight weeks every summer. We have now four years running initiative where we do fully staged operas.
- [04:43]
A
It's amazing.
- [04:43]
B
We transform, walk Festival hall, and we have put on Bohem, Butterfly, Magic Flute, and last year, Hansel and Gretel. Now, this year, as we record, we won't be in the hall because we're undergoing a big renovation project. So we'll be at the high school.
- [04:57]
A
That's summer of 2026.
- [04:58]
B
Summer of 2026. We're thrilled to be there, but it's not really going to make an opera possible this year. So when we go back into the theater in 2027, after the renovation is complete, we'll reinstate the opera initiative with Tosca. We're thrilled. We're thrilled to take that on. Keep the Puccini dream alive.
- [05:19]
A
You've given us a scoop Tosca.
- [05:21]
B
Yes.
- [05:21]
A
That's wonderful. And of course, we should mention that the music director for the Grand Teton Music Festival is a renowned opera conductor, Donald Runicles.
- [05:30]
B
Talk about bearing the lead. I should have said that first, but Sir Donald Runicles has been the music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival since 2006. So he's this year having his 20th season. And it is one of the great privileges of my life personally, to be able to work with an artist of this stature. And I know every musician in the orchestra, all 250 of them, would say the same thing. He is our North Star. It's an incredible experience.
- [05:58]
A
Yeah. We're just so fortunate. And those 250 musicians you mentioned, they're not all on stage at once.
- [06:04]
B
They are not. So we have anywhere from 75 to 95 in any given week based on repertoire. And they come and go during the summer, so we'll shift between 20 and 40 people each week. So over the course of the summer, 250 players from around the country and some international players have graced the stage at Walk Festival Hall.
- [06:24]
A
And it's wonderful. And some of the soloists and specialists who come in, and I've met people in all capacities having to do with the festival. Anyway, we encourage you, please come to Wyoming in the summer, come to Jackson Hole and partake of this music festival. It's amazing.
- [06:40]
B
Go to GTMF.org and see what we're all about.
- [06:43]
A
Yeah. And Khol, our beloved home station, is also where you give your movie reviews.
- [06:50]
B
One of the great joys of my life is my side hustle as a film critic. I've been doing that about 10 years as well. Love film. I love talking about film. I love watching film. I watch hundreds of them during the year so that I can talk about them and vote on them at the end of the year during awards season. And when I came to Jackson to work for the festival, I approached the radio station. They didn't appear to have a critic, and I offered up my services. And here we are, seven years later, I'm still doing it.
- [07:16]
A
Well, that's sort of how opera for everyone came into being, too. Community radio, It's a wonderful, wonderful resource and an opportunity for the people who were in the community.
- [07:26]
B
Absolutely.
- [07:27]
A
And then it goes. Then it goes further. All right. Alcina is the name of our opera. George Friedrich Handel. We're going to say it more or less the English way, because he became a naturalized English citizen, even though he was born in Germany or the German states.
- [07:44]
B
He was born in Halle, which is in Saxony in 1685. We're back in the Baroque period here now. Full. And he spent some time in Hamburg. He traveled a lot in Italy before moving, as you say, to England. He relocated to London in 1710, became a naturalized citizen there, as you said, also in 1727. And he has an interesting position in the Baroque era.
- [08:09]
A
Oh, yes.
- [08:09]
B
As a German born Italian, trained essentially half Englishman.
- [08:15]
A
Right.
- [08:15]
B
He represents a lot of cultures. And I do think the three Baroque traditions in opera, the German, the French and the Italian, are all present in Handel's operas. And the difference is very quickly, and this is very reductive and not very scholastic.
- [08:31]
A
We have a lot of music to get to, so we're keeping it tight.
- [08:33]
B
We'll keep it tight. So the differences are German operas are more dramatic and focusing more on the orchestral accompaniments. The French is absolute decadence, spectacle, lots of ballet. Because what is more spectacular than that? And then the Italian style focused really on vocal virtuosity. The orchestra was meant to highlight vocal virtuosity. And those stories tend to be very emotional, too. And Handel synthesizes all of that, particularly in Alcina.
- [09:00]
A
Yes. There were even ballet sequences in Alcina.
- [09:03]
B
Absolutely.
- [09:04]
A
He brought in, of course, a French woman to lead all of that, and French dancers, but that gets cut out. Although I will tell you, I watched a streaming service version of this production of Alcina and they had a ballet section that was sort of stuck back into the show.
- [09:21]
B
You'll still see it once in a while, but the second and third iterations of the piece removed them, sadly. It's an interesting story, the piece itself, but I want to mention that for those that maybe aren't quite sure yet who we're talking about when we mention Handel, I'm going to give you two further points of reference.
- [09:39]
A
Oh, that's good.
- [09:40]
B
Later in his life, he sort of set opera aside for reasons, as I said, I'll get to in a moment. And he focused on oratorios and choral music and really did set that tone for the English oratorio. It's a genre of its own now, and it's something that he in many ways authored. So the oratorio that we know best is of course, Messiah.
- [10:01]
A
Messiah, which is one of the ones that we did on opera for everyone quite a while ago. But I really do, I still listen to it to remind myself some of the details. That's episode 46. And we also did the Oratorio Semile.
- [10:14]
B
Oh, wow, great.
- [10:15]
A
Well, Atlanta Opera a couple of years ago had a production. And even though it's an oratorio, they did it as a full blown opera. Because you can do that.
- [10:24]
B
Absolutely.
- [10:24]
A
And it doesn't follow the. The mold of what a quick definition of an oratorio is in that it's not on a sacred subject, unless you're including the Greek gods and goddesses as a sacred subject, which is not typically what Europeans would consider sacred. But Semele was one of many of those oratorios that he transitioned to, which you're going to explain for us later.
- [10:47]
B
Yes, absolutely. There's a reason. There's a reason why he began to focus on those more. There's a reason why the English musical culture is so thankful to Handel for having created that tradition there. Another piece of Handel's that you know, even if you don't know, you know is the water music, the very famous water music from 1717. So that was early on in his life. Messiah was 1741. They're sort of bookmark anchor pieces in his history and in between those is no less than 42 operas.
- [11:18]
A
It's phenomenal. We have. Well, here, as long as I'm doing it, I'm just going to do it. We have covered a number of Handel operas and oratorios on opera for everyone. Tamerlano, which is the Italian for Tamerlane, we did that as episode 30. That was 1724, one of the years that was so productive and so successful for Handel. Part of that period of time included the 1725 opera Rhoda Linda. That's episode number 40. Episode 46 I mentioned is Messiah, episode 57, Xerxes. A fascinating piece, by the way. Xerxes or Cersei in the Italian version. 1738, Agrippina, episode 69. That was from early in his career when he was in Italy and that was first Produced in Venice. 1709. Julius Caesar is episode 61, Julio Cesare, 1724. Part of that period I referenced before and we did episode 133, Semele, 1744, the oratorio, and now 142, Alcina.
- [12:23]
B
It's a strong list, Pat. Well, there's some masterpieces in there.
- [12:26]
A
So many more. There are others I definitely want to
- [12:28]
B
get to with me, I hope.
- [12:30]
A
Oh, yes, yes, yes, please. I mean, he wrote three on this same source material.
- [12:35]
B
He did. So you mentioned before how the. There's so many operas in this book, like you see so many potential operatic
- [12:42]
A
stories, such good stories.
- [12:43]
B
And Handel wrote three, as you said, because one of the things you might be thinking if you Listen to our Orlando Furioso show. And then now listen to Alcina. One of the questions you might have is, well, where's Orlando? Why is he not in this story? It's because he comes from a different part of the book. The book is filled with Cantos, and he separated out different sections to create three different appas. The first one was called Orlando, 1733. And Orlando, of course, is Charlemagne's most celebrated night. He loves Angelica, she loves Medoro, he goes absolutely crazy and pursues the two lovers. And he must have his sanity and sense of duty as a knight restored by the sorcerer Zoroastro. That's Orlando. So no Alcina.
- [13:23]
A
No Alcina.
- [13:24]
B
The second opera, which 1734. 1735. I'm never quite sure which date's correct, but that's Ariodante. And the prince named Ariodante is promised two Ginevra, the princess. But the Duke of Albany wants her for himself, and he convinces her father, the king, that she's been unfaithful. Well, of course, the lovers swoon at the rumor, at the consequences of it, but luckily, Aria, Dante's brother, duels the duke and makes him admit what he did wrong. Oh, so that's the second opera.
- [13:53]
A
Oh, okay.
- [13:54]
B
And then we have Alcina. Yes, 1735. Should I briefly discuss the plot of this?
- [13:59]
A
Briefly?
- [14:00]
B
Okay. Alcina, as you know from Orlando, Furioso, is a powerful enchantress, and she likes to seduce the men who happen upon her island when she's done with them, she turns them into stones and animals when she gets bored. So the night Ruggiero is her latest victim, and his fiance, Bradamante, comes to the island disguised as a man, her own brother Ricciardo, to save him with a magic ring. It's too bad, really, for Alcina, because at this point in the story, she really is in the twilight of her power as a sorceress. Also, too bad for Alcina. Her sister Morgana falls for Ricciardo and messes everything up. So pat love, the genuine kind, the forced kind, the fake kind, complicates everything in this story.
- [14:44]
A
There are a lot of complicating factors in this story. Disguise and deception. We start off right away with disguise. One of the first characters we'll see here is Bradamante.
- [14:55]
B
Right.
- [14:55]
A
She was a character in Orlando Furioso as well.
- [14:58]
B
What was your favorite character?
- [14:59]
A
Well, there was also Astolfo. We were big fans of him. We'll get to him in a moment. He's only sort of in this show, a single Mention. Well, or a supernumerary.
- [15:10]
B
Right.
- [15:12]
A
But anyway, Bradamante is a female warrior, and so she's one of these characters that surprise the people on stage. But she also confuses us a little bit because this is a world in which, in baroque opera in general, you very often have women in men's clothes singing the roles of men. And here you have a woman in men's dress pretending to be a man. But even within the story, she is a woman. She's pretending to be this brother, Ricciardo, this brother of hers. So that explains the family likeness, I guess.
- [15:49]
B
Absolutely. And he. I say he. She. It's. It depends on the context of the story. I think she. Bradamante, the idea of a female knight was probably outrageous enough in those times that to immediately cross dress her in this story was probably what it took to get it past censors and the tastes of the audience. It is also the conceit for how the freedom of Ruggiero must be wondering. It has to be won by manly duty and honor. So she has to embody that to be able to save him. It has nothing to do with the clothes she's wearing, though. It's her wits. And it's very resolve that gets the job done. Just like in Orlando Furioso.
- [16:32]
A
Yeah, she is quite the character. Well, we open in the first act after we've had our introductory music and gotten settled down and ready for this show. We open with that meeting, the meet cute, in a way, of Bradamante dressed as a man, pretending to be her brother and the sister of Alcina and Morgana.
- [16:54]
B
So when we arrive on the island, Bradamante, dressed as Ricciardo, is there with her tutor and guide, Melisso, and they're there to save Ruggero. They know he's there, they're looking to find him, and they're hoping to break Alcina's spell with this ring. They are happened upon by Morgana and she, Morgana falls immediately in love with Bradamante Ricciardo, the disguised male paladin, in this aria that we hear, OSA pre al riso, wreathed in smiles. Morgana has fallen for Bradamante Ricciardo, and she sings about Cupid's arrow and other poetic flights of fancy to describe her love. And I hope we can listen to the entire aria, because I want to remind people, when we discussed baroque opera back in the Orlando Furioso conversation, we talked about a da capo aria, Pat, which is the head. Exactly, the head. It basically means there's an ABA structure. So you have an A section, a contrasting B section, and then you return to the A section. And the great thing about Handel is he takes the opportunity, where his singers take the opportunity to heavily ornament the repeat of the A section. And I think you hear that really well in this performance of Morgan, not just in Handel.
- [18:08]
A
Right. That's. A lot of other composers will have da Coppo arias where the singers are encouraged to, well, improvise ornament. And that's part of what made them the superstars that they were.
- [18:18]
B
Exactly. And it's a hallmark of Italian opera is this virtuosic improvisation that happens on this. The repeat of the A section.
- [18:26]
A
So, Jeff, I don't remember if it happens in this particular aria, but. But the ABA structure is there. But the A may happen more than just once in the beginning and once at the end. It can be A, A, A. Before we get to B, the A
- [18:39]
B
sections are often repeated. It gives more opportunity for ornamentation. It gives more opportunity for the emotional information to be delivered. Because in Baroque opera, the recitatives, which are the expository sections, are getting you to a certain place in the story where you need an emotional reaction, and that's the job of the aria. So sometimes you have to sing this stuff more than once to make sure everyone knows how you feel about it.
- [19:02]
A
Yeah. And it gives a different sort of pacing.
- [19:04]
B
Absolutely.
- [19:05]
A
To Baroque opera than other operas from later in the 19th century, for example, might. It's just a different pacing, but you really get to feel your feelings here.
- [19:15]
B
You do.
- [19:15]
A
Okay, let's take a listen to this one from Morgana.
- [22:25]
C
Sa, Jesus, Sa. Come on. Come on. Your cold.
- [24:01]
A
That was Morgana, Alcina's sister in the opera Alcina by George Friedrich Handel, A Baroque opera. That was our Da Capo aria in full. It's the only one we'll listen to in full because we've got excerpts. Because we've got a lot to share with you all.
- [24:17]
B
There's so much music, so much story, so many characters to be introduced to.
- [24:21]
A
Yes. I'm reminded of the thing that you said when we did Orlando Furioso, that Vivaldi opera named after Orlando, this lead man in the original stories, that it's all about Alcina.
- [24:35]
B
Absolutely.
- [24:36]
A
And here she really gets to be the center. Although there are a lot of good, strong characters because of all of these da capo arias that these characters get to have where they share their feelings with us. They're strong and they're interesting. Each one has a chance to develop or we get to see different aspects of them. Just to clarify, in this baroque sort of opera, these arias, we keep talking about the feelings that people are having. When does the plot move along?
- [25:05]
B
The plot, as I mentioned before, moves along in those expository recitatives, which are kind of like chant that you might hear in church. And what I mean by that is, technically, and quickly, it's one note of music per one syllable of speaking. Right.
- [25:21]
A
So it's singing, talking.
- [25:22]
B
Exactly. So it moves very quickly and it's almost. It's talking. It's what later in Mozart, in Zauberflut would just literally be talking. You just speak these lines, but in recitative, it moves the plot along and it gets you to a place where an emotional response is required, like I said before. And that's when you're singing many more than one musical note per syllable, because it's meant to be more florid, more ornamented, more romantically dramatic.
- [25:47]
A
Beautiful. Well, we're going to move on in our story. We've got Morgana on stage with Bradamante, who's dressed up as her brother Ricciardo. What happens next?
- [25:57]
B
They make their way to the palace of Alcina. And before we meet Alcina, I wanted everyone to hear the first. And there's only a couple moments where the chorus is involved in this show.
- [26:07]
A
Yeah. Not a lot of choral workshop, not
- [26:08]
B
a lot of chorus, but this is a great one. And they sing Questo y il cielo di contenti. And this is the pinnacle of delight. And this is where the gathered knights and ladies, who are ostensibly Alcina's previous victims, all stand and extol the magnificence of the palace.
- [26:57]
C
Sam. Holy.
- [27:59]
B
So that was the chorus when Alcina's palace is revealed. And I love Pat how hymn like that music is. It almost sounds like I mentioned church before. And this is another iteration of that kind of thinking. And I also love listening to Handel's music for chorus because he's so.
- [28:16]
A
His choral work is exquisite. I mean, think of Messiah, right?
- [28:20]
B
Exactly. It's just this little gem in this big opera of all these solo voices that make you realize how good he was at that, too. So moving on, we meet Alcina for the first time after she's met Bradamante Ricciardo. And Melissa Ruggiero's there, too. Bradamante's playing it cool because she doesn't want Alcina to know who she actually is. And you get this sense in this moment, for the first time, that Alcina is not fully in control of this situation. There might have been times in her life when she was. But she's not anymore. Because Ruggiero, though she has manipulated him through magic into loving her, she has fallen for him for real. She's lost, not quite herself. This is a beautiful aria. Her first. It's dark. Cormillo, tell them, dear heart.
- [30:24]
C
Sam, Sa.
- [31:15]
B
I.
- [32:05]
A
This is opera for everyone. And I'm here with Jeff Counts discussion discussing the Handel opera Alcina. That was Alcina herself.
- [32:14]
B
It's such a great vehicle role for sopranos. It's just a transportive role. And this is, of course, Joyce didonato Incredible. And.
- [32:25]
A
Yes, and we will give full credits in the beginning of the second half, as we always do. But this music, it's so exquisite.
- [32:32]
B
It's so exquisite. We've just met Alcina, and in the interest of meeting some of the other players in this drama, I'll take us next to the entrance and our first moment to hear the singing of Uberto. Uberto is a strange character in this story because it seems like the kind of character that is unnecessary, at least at the beginning. But Uberto comes back very importantly in Act 3. Uberto is a youth who's on the island in search of his father. And who's his father, Pat?
- [33:05]
A
Oh, he was my favorite, really, from Orlando Furioso, the Vivaldi opera that we've already discussed. Astolfo. Astolfo was the man who had some clarity of what was going on.
- [33:18]
B
He was the conscience of that particular opera.
- [33:21]
A
He was. And he was someone you could admire, which put him in a very lonely category in that show.
- [33:28]
B
When we come upon his name in this story, it's assumed that he is a previous victim of Alcina.
- [33:34]
A
I think right now I want to just make one point about this particular opera. I always say that you will enjoy opera in general. It's part of the mission of this show. You will enjoy opera if you know a little bit about it before you go in. But this is an opera in particular where I think Handel expected us to know some of this story before we took our seats in the opera house. It is one where we are jumping in. And you and I say, and anyone who's listened to our Alando Furioso will know about Astolfo. But I think Handel expects everyone to know who that is. Everyone should know who Bradamante is. And I think in general, people going to operas today in the 21st century don't necessarily know this story as well as audiences did in the Baroque period, for example. I consider myself somebody who likes to prepare for opera. I had a chance to see Alcina a few years back, didn't prepare to my everlasting regret. It was beautiful. But I was a little confused because I didn't realize that that woman dressed as a man was not just playing a pants role in the beginning. It was not clear to me. And to know who these characters are, it helps so not to just say you really must listen to opera for everyone before you go to an opera, but for an opera like this, and for a lot of them, preparing really makes a difference because they expect you to know these characters.
- [35:01]
B
You bring up a great point when it comes to adapted art. And I talk about this all the time in my film criticism. Sometimes a movie feels absolutely like it was made for people who read the book, right? I'm talking about the Harry Potter films, I'm talking about the Lord of the Rings films, other beloved literary subjects that are made into film. There's a certain amount of pre prepared familiarity that's assumed by the filmmaker. And I think you're right, it would have been true here too.
- [35:31]
A
It would have been true. So if you have a chance to see Alcina brush up. Or any of the ones based on mythology, I would say, or lore, or great epics.
- [35:42]
B
And if you listen to our show on Orlando Furioso, you definitely know who Astolfo is and you know that he's worth looking for.
- [35:48]
A
Yes, exactly. In fact, some of the synopsis, the quick little snapshots preparing you for Alcina will simply call a boy who's looking for his father. And I want to scream, but wait, his father is really special.
- [36:03]
B
The name matters.
- [36:04]
A
Yes, yes. So here he is. Uberto is looking for Astolfo, his father.
- [36:10]
B
Here we hear him and I say him in quotes because this role is done by a soprano common in those
- [36:16]
A
days, or originally it was written for. In fact, Handel was thrilled to pieces. He found a young man whose voice had not yet changed, a boy soprano, or a treble as they would call it, who could take on a number of arias in a full on opera. Amazing. So if you can find a boy, and they do sometimes with modern productions, find a boy who has the ability. It's a challenging role, but more often than not it's a woman who needs to play the role.
- [36:42]
B
It takes a boy soprano of uncommon skill and musicality because it's a very, very difficult part in this particular Arya Qi minsenya il caro Padre who will tell me where my dear father is? We know who that is. Little Oberto is desperate. He's almost ready to give up the search.
- [38:02]
A
Poor, dear Alberto, he's despairing. He's thinking about losing hope, about finding his father. Father. But he will persist.
- [38:10]
B
He will persist. He's smarter than many people in this story, and we'll get an opportunity to prove that later. But for now, his tiny part in Act 1 is done, and we leap forward a little bit in time to our introduction to the person who is largely at the center of this entire story is Ruggiero, the fallen knight who is under the spell of Alcina. He, at this moment, is confronted by Bradamante as her own brother, Ricciardo, who is basically telling ruggiero, don't you remember? You are betrothed to my sister. How dare you. You are an unfaithful man. And in this moment, the aria dite mirido. You make me laugh. Ruggiero is scolding Bradamante, having no recollection of ever loving her, and then dashes off to find Alcina, the person he believes he truly loves.
- [39:26]
C
Sa.
- [40:25]
A
That was Ruggiero, the great knight Ruggiero. But the voice might not have sounded like a great knight to you.
- [40:32]
B
I should have said this before. It's a male character, very much so. But the role is a pants roll. Bradamante's role is a meta pants roll. This is an actual pants role. It's done by a mezzo. Now, now, that wasn't always the case. It used to be a castrato role.
- [40:48]
A
Ever so briefly, explain what that means.
- [40:50]
B
Well, it's a castrated male. It's a male who has had his parts removed so that his voice remains in the falsetto soprano range.
- [41:00]
A
It's long been illegal. It is not done anymore. It was a gamble on the part of parents or church or whoever was part of this surgical change, this practice. Yeah, but for the ones that were successful and promising, singing boys were the ones who were the candidates for this wasn't necessarily going to pan out in adulthood, but when it did.
- [41:25]
B
Oh, they were rock stars.
- [41:27]
A
They were rock stars. And part of what made them that is that they had these high voices, but they. But they were still men. They. They grew large, like, unnaturally large. The. The physicality of a castrato was notable in terms of what you would see, but they were rock stars. They. They could name their price. The good ones.
- [41:48]
B
I think the otherworldly quality of a castrato voice is the one thing that has traveled into our day, into our fascination, and I think the elevation of rockstar status of countertenors.
- [42:03]
A
Well, countertenors are becoming more and more. We have more countertenors to be hired. And countertenors are the men who sing in essentially a highly trained falsetto voice, and they can take on some of these roles. 20, 30, 40 years ago, it was pretty much mezzo sopranos who would do this because there weren't as many trained countertenors.
- [42:24]
B
There's a lot more now. And just to be clear, they're not surgically altered.
- [42:29]
A
No, it's a trained falsetto voice.
- [42:31]
B
Right? Exactly. But this role in Handel's Time would have been for a castrato. And I've got a great story about the person who created this role that we'll get to in Act 2.
- [42:41]
A
I like a great story.
- [42:42]
B
At this point in the story, as we're telling it now, we get to our introduction of Bradamante as a singer. In this aria, she has seen Ruggiero walk away. She has processed how far gone he is, and she is schooling Morgana and Orante, who are also having a bit of a tiff. We haven't introduced Orante yet as a character, but he loves Morgana, who we know has fallen for Ricciardo. It's hard to keep track of.
- [43:11]
A
I almost need note cards on a board for this.
- [43:13]
B
It's almost one of those red string boards that you've solved crimes with. But she is, in this moment, schooling the two of them about jealousy. It's. The aria is e jealousia. It is jealousy. And she, as I said, is schooling them on what is the flip side of love? Jealousy. And it's something that, sadly, she, Bradamante, knows all too well.
- [43:50]
C
Sam, your brother Sa. Sam. Ra.
- [46:38]
A
That was Bradamante, the warrior woman, disguised as her brother, telling the the two lovers on the outs that the problems are jealousy.
- [46:50]
B
Be careful with jealousy. I love that it's voiced by a contralto, the lowest voice in the female range. It's a great choice for this particular role. I mentioned Orante a moment ago. He's Alcina's general. He loves Morgana. He's frustrated by Morgana's immediate betrayal and her falling in love with Ricciardo. And he, unfortunately, does not take the best parts of Bradamante's advice from her aria. And he chooses instead to convince the enchanted Ruggiero that Alcina is in love with Ricciardo. Are you following me, Pat?
- [47:26]
A
Well, I am, but I have a little bit of experience with this. So, yes, he tries to stir the pot.
- [47:34]
B
Yes, he has the most amazing introductory Aria. It's called Simplicetto Adonacredi. Simpleton. You trust a woman. He's giving, of course, the eternal advice of men to other men, especially those whose pride has been wounded. But he's not playing fair here. He's playing false. He's trying to muddy the waters with Ruggiero and his boss, Alcina. This is a funny aria. It's got this fabulous rustic drone happening underneath it that is so outrageously unique in all Baroque music. Handel is capable of such imaginative instrumentation. I love that part of this.
- [48:16]
A
Yes. And he is a tenor, and he is one of our two characters who have traditional male voices in male roles, so we will get to hear a tenor. He's quite the military man.
- [48:28]
B
Quite the military man. I find it interesting that in Baroque opera, tenors get to do a lot of bad guy work. When you fast forward a couple centuries, it's almost always basses that are the
- [48:37]
A
villains or the baritones.
- [48:39]
B
Yes.
- [48:39]
A
Well, let's hear from Orant. That was Orante. He is not happy with the way things are going in his own life, so he's just decided to besmirch all women.
- [49:46]
B
And as o fish as he was in this moment, Pat, luckily he was speaking to another guy who fell for it completely, because Ruggiero, of course, goes back to Alcina and confronts her about her supposed love for Ricciardo. She is completely thrown off by this, which means Orante's plan is coming to pass, because he actually hopes that Alcina, to prove her constancy to Ruggiero, will turn Ricciardo, his rival, into a beast, the way she does with all of the men she discards. In this moment, though, we hear her, si sonquela, Yes, I am still true. This is Alcina getting a taste of her own medicine, and she's feeling a little bit sorry for herself. I find it interesting, Pat, I mentioned her as a fading power in the beginning. The second part of the first line of this is Non Pihubella, which is, though no longer beautiful. She's truly feeling sorry for herself in this moment.
- [50:43]
A
Oh, she's outwardly beautiful. It's all through magic. And we're not talking about powder and rouge here.
- [50:49]
B
The whole island is outwardly beautiful, but there are dark secrets underneath.
- [50:54]
A
Well, let's listen to Alcina.
- [51:11]
C
Sam sa. Sam I. Mo.
- [53:56]
B
We've just heard from Alcina as she sings about her fading beauty and her attempts to convince Ruggiero that she is still true to him. As I mentioned early on, her love for him is quite real and it's making her weaker as a villain.
- [54:10]
A
And it's quite a contrast to her usual practice of ensnaring these men and having her way with them and then discarding of them by transforming them.
- [54:21]
B
There's no indication she's going to get bored with Ruggiero at all. And it's certainly not happening in this moment. She's bemoaning the potential loss of him rather than looking forward to yet another conquest down the road. I like the fact, Pat, that Morgana begins and ends Act 1.
- [54:37]
A
Yeah.
- [54:37]
B
She opens it with her aria and she closes it with her aria. Look upon me tenderly Again. I find her, at least at this point in the story, a rather sympathetic character.
- [54:49]
A
Orana, the sister of Alcina.
- [54:52]
B
She falls in love with Ricciardo immediately, and we find out later when we meet Orante, why that's possible. He's not all that lovable. We're sort of rooting for her. So it's especially sad that at the end of the act, Bradamante, who's become wise to the fact that Alcina is going to turn her, slash Ricciardo into a beast in an attempt to keep Ruggiero in line.
- [55:15]
A
Yeah.
- [55:15]
B
That she chooses to trick Morgana by professing to love her back as Ricciardo. It's kind of a sad moment because we find her at the very end having been tricked by Bradamante into calling off Alcina's plan. But in doing so, she gets a moment to reflect and rejoice on her newfound quote, unquote love.
- [55:34]
A
Well, I mean, Bradamante has to do what she has to do to survive. She is there with a goal, with a purpose, to rescue Ruggiero, who doesn't think he even needs rescuing. And so I feel. I do feel badly for Morgana being duped, but what else was Bradamante to do?
- [55:51]
B
She can't save anybody if she gets turned into a rock.
- [55:54]
A
No, she cannot. Right. The lucky ones get turned into animals. It's just terrible. Morgana.
- [56:07]
C
Sat. Sam sa. Lo.
- [58:04]
A
You're listening to Opera for Everyone, a radio show and podcast that embraces drama and story through love of music. Opera for Everyone airs Sundays from 9 to 11am Mountain Time on 89. 1 Khol Jackson, Wyoming's only community radio station. If you'd like to hear more conversations about opera, please join us on the Opera for Everyone podcast. And if you subscribe and rate us, you'll be helping with our mission to bring opera to everyone by helping others find this show. Stay with us. The second half of Today's show is coming right up.
- [58:45]
C
Sam.
- [59:12]
A
Welcome back to the second half of Opera for everyone. I am Pat Wright and I am here with Jeff Counts. Welcome back, Jeff.
- [59:18]
B
Thank you, Pat.
- [59:19]
A
And just a reminder, Jeff Counts, general manager of the Grand Teton Music Festival, film critic for Khol, and co host
- [59:29]
B
of the podcast, the Ghost Light Podcast.
- [59:31]
A
The Ghost Light Podcast. Ah, amazing. I'm so grateful for you taking the time to talk about Baroque opera with me here today.
- [59:40]
B
You never have to beg. I love this.
- [59:41]
A
Oh, good. I think that means Jeff's going to be back for another. Another round.
- [59:45]
B
He's hoping so.
- [59:46]
A
Absolutely. Yes. We will make it happen, Jeff. We will make it happen. Well, before we go on, I would like to thank the people involved in creating this exquisite music that we've been listening to. This is from a live recording that was made in Italy in 2007 when with Il Camplesso Barocco Orchestra. Wow. We'll just say the complete Baroque Orchestra. And that's conductor and founder Alan Curtis.
- [60:13]
B
Leading them, the cast was Joyce Didonato as Alcina, Maite Beaumont as Ruggiero. Sonia Prina sings Bradamante. Karina Govan is Morgana, Kobe Van Rensburg is Orante. Melisso is sung by Vito Priante, and Uberto is Laura Cherici.
- [60:32]
A
Thank you, everyone. We just are so grateful to have this music to enjoy. And this is probably a piece you could pull up on your streaming service if you want to hear it uninterrupted once you know what's going on. All right, Jeff, you promised that you were going to give us some information on Handel and his career, so I'm going to hold you to that promise.
- [60:53]
B
I think I might have threatened, actually. Okay, well, listen, there's a lot happening around the premiere of this particular work, and it happens at a moment in his life and career where things did sort of pivot for him. I mentioned 1735 as the year, but the date specifically of the premiere was April 17th in that year at Covent Garden in London. The opera was a big success right away, Pat, but it fell into obscurity after 1738. I'll talk about why in a moment. But it wasn't rediscovered really in a meaningful way until. Hold onto your hat, 1928.
- [61:27]
A
Yes, yes.
- [61:28]
B
The 20th century languished for two centuries. Why? There was a heated rivalry at the time, in this mid-1730s London, between these two opera houses. Handel at the head of one and a hated rival at the head of another. And they competed with each other for singers. They competed with each other for funders, both in the nobility and in the community. And between their battles and the changing tastes of their audiences and the wildly accelerating expenses of putting on opera. Yes, both houses failed in the late 1730s. And it wasn't the first time that Handel had lost an opera house to the misfortunes of finance.
- [62:08]
A
It's an expensive art.
- [62:10]
B
Absolutely. And when Handel's opera house went under in, I don't know, 1738, it's maybe a half a dozen operas later, after Alcina, he decided to pack it in on opera. And that's when he began to shift his focus to oratorio and choral music in the manner that I spoke of before he. He decided that it wasn't the right path, that he just couldn't take the heartache of losing these companies over and over again. So we are in this moment of Alcina seeing him at a time in his life when he is transitioning away from this 40 work, long journey in opera. It's a shame.
- [62:45]
A
Well, yes and no. He didn't stop writing music. And some of his oratorios verge on the opera, as we referenced with Semele earlier. And there are a number of oratorio seasons that he puts on, which essentially are opera seasons without as much stage machinery, without as many costumes and lighting and all the special effects, without as many bells and whistles.
- [63:13]
B
I'm hearing less expensive.
- [63:14]
A
Yes, exactly, exactly. So I'm going to not be sad about that because the ones I get sad about are the ones who die so young. But Purcell, for example in England, Mozart later on, those are the ones that actually I just like. We have beautiful music from them, but. But early death.
- [63:34]
B
It's just he lived another 20 years after he decided to move on from opera. So you're right, he had more time to do all of this amazing oratorio work and tell these sort of, what, semi staged operatic stories.
- [63:47]
A
Yeah. And like I say, these days some of these oratorios are being staged as operas, or I've seen them even. I saw a version of Semele online that had all the action was no kidding. To the left of the orchestra, to the right of the orchestra, behind the orchestra and in front of the orchestra. It's really creative. Directors can do great things with this. If you've got the music, a good director can make it work.
- [64:12]
B
It sounds a little like what we have to do in Walk Festival hall to make our operas work. Honestly proud of the creativity and resourcefulness that we employ during the summer.
- [64:21]
A
Yes, yes, well. And the use of that screen, the
- [64:24]
B
projection, it makes a big difference to be able to have the digital capacities we do today.
- [64:28]
A
It's amazing. Okay, well, we're going to, we're going to pull us back into our story. And Jeff, I'm just going to ask you. Opera helmet, quiz style. This is a challenging one. Can you succinctly tell us what's happened in the first half, which also is the first act of this three act opera?
- [64:47]
B
In the first act of Alcina, Bradamante and her tutor Melisso come to Alcina's island to try to find Bradamante's beloved Ruggiero. To do so, she chooses to dress as her own brother, Ricciardo. They see Morgana, who is Alcina's sister, who immediately falls in love with Ricciardo, causing all sorts of complications with her lover, Orante, who is Alcina's general. Orante decides he's going to further complicate matters by convincing Ruggiero that Alcina loves Ricciardo. And then Ruggiero demands that Alcina turn Ricciardo into an animal or a stone or something not human. And to keep that from happening, Bradamante, as Ricciardo convinces Morgana that she. He actually loves her so that she'll call her sister off.
- [65:36]
A
Wow. Okay. I think, I mean, I feel like I need to stop, go back and play that on half speed to follow you. But that was brilliant. Thank you. Well done.
- [65:47]
B
Thank you.
- [65:49]
A
All right, Act 2. Act 2 finds us with Ruggiero and Melisso. But there's another disguise at work.
- [65:59]
B
There's another disguise at work because Meliso approaches Ruggiero dressed as his Ruggiero's youth tutor. A lot of tutors in play here. He is currently Bradamante's tutor, but he's now pretending to be Ruggiero's tutor from earlier in his life.
- [66:16]
A
You know, it's interesting that this Tudor thing, it isn't always translated or even explained as Tudor in lists of castmen. Sometimes it's guardian, sometimes it's companion.
- [66:28]
B
Guardian is a very common one.
- [66:29]
A
Yeah, yeah. It's just. Anyway, but a key adult figure, guiding figure in his life.
- [66:35]
B
And I think he does so in the hopes that it'll shake a little bit of recognition loose from Ruggiero because he did at least kind of recognize, quote, unquote, Ricciardo. And so I imagine Melissa is hoping that this recognizable face will wake Ruggiero up. But in his hip pocket and in his actual pocket, he's got a magic ring that's going to do the actual work for him.
- [66:56]
A
All right, I want to stop right here and ask you this, Melissio. When we were discussing Orlando Furioso, the opera that Vivaldi did based on the Orlando Furioso epic, there's a character in the background, Melissa, who has a magic ring. Do we think this is the same character?
- [67:15]
B
It must be. It must be just an interpretation, a translation. I'm sure the Italian being spoken in the early 16th century, when this book was written, probably seems pretty arcane and antique to Italian speakers from Handel's time. I wonder if it's not a translation error, but a translation interpretation.
- [67:38]
A
Yeah, a useful dramatic interpretation, because I couldn't find. I actually looked. I couldn't find anything definitive connecting the two. But it's the fact that, I mean, the. Melissa. It's just an O or an A at the end of the word. And this magic ring, it's not a different magic ring. It's still the magic ring that lets you avoid the powers, the enchantments of Alcina.
- [68:03]
B
Who knows? Maybe Handel owed a certain base a favor and just changed the A to an O and made the character male.
- [68:10]
A
That's possible, but. But it also. This. This libretto is. We didn't even mention the libretto. It's attributed to anonymous. But there's also a prior libretto that inspired it.
- [68:22]
B
Absolutely. Yeah.
- [68:23]
A
I think that was probably in that work. So maybe we can't put it on.
- [68:27]
B
Probably. So he saw a version by Riccardo Broschi of a piece called Li Sola di Alcina, which is the island of Alcina, in 1728. He saw the. A musically enhanced performance of this drama while he was in Italy. And this was taken from Ariosto. So it is interesting that his version of this Ariosto source material was seen through the prism of this other fellow.
- [68:52]
A
Yeah, it's a very common room for operas to come into being. Somebody's taken the source material. Somebody's made a play or another opera, even. Anyway, Melisso is here, pretending to be the guiding adult in the life of Ruggiero.
- [69:09]
B
And it works. He pulls the ring out. He uses it immediately. The island is transformed before the eyes of Ruggiero. I find it interesting that his spell is broken at the beginning of Act 2. It's not something we have to wait till the end of the opera for. The drama proceeds differently because of this moment. So in this aria, qual portento, what miracle? Melissa has used the magic ring to restore Ruggiero to sanity. And the music of this particular aria, Pat, is so arresting. So strange. Perfect for a magical transformation.
- [70:22]
C
Sam.
- [71:12]
A
Well, Ruggiero, in that very arresting piece of music, has had his mind cleared. I mean, it's a single line that he sings. What miracle restores my mind to its former clarity? That's all that he sings in that entire piece. And he follows it up with, Wait, wait, where did my. Where are you? My tutor. You were here. Where are you? Because the disguise doesn't work anymore.
- [71:37]
B
Now, Ruggiero doesn't acquit himself as the brightest bulb all the way through this performance. And I love that music you talked about his mind clearing. It's actually happening in front of us. That rising gesture in the strings that keeps repeating. It's almost like Ruggiero having to knock himself on the side of the head to just get the cobwebs shaken loose. It's amazing, amazing music. Now that that's happened, though, we finally get an opportunity to be introduced, so to speak, in an aria sense, to Melissa. We've heard a lot from him in resets, but this is the first chance we can hear him sing something emotional. And this is the aria. Think of her who suffers a wounded heart now that he, Melisso, has saved Rougiero and made him himself again. He's encouraging the young man to return to Bradamante.
- [72:24]
A
Yes. And Melisso is not a character in his own right, really. He doesn't have his own loves, desires. I mean, Yahi put on a little costume here, but it's all in service of. Well, in service of Bradamante. And he. He works with the other characters as a support.
- [72:40]
B
He moves pieces around the board.
- [72:42]
A
Yeah.
- [72:42]
B
So here is Meliso. An opportunity to hear a bass voice singing a wonderful Da Capo aria.
- [73:00]
C
Sam.
- [73:26]
A
Nana. Sampra, That bass voice here in Handel's opera Alcina was Melisso in passionate support of Bradamante.
- [75:44]
B
It's the second time Ruggiero's been given advice by a male voice in this opera. Yeah, the first advice was terrible. This advice is very good. Go take care of business with Bradamante. He does go to her, but he is skeptical. She's come dressed as somebody else. He's been enthralled by Elcina for so long, he doesn't really believe right away that she's actually who she says she is. So their moment together is not awesome. She reacts strongly to it. Has a bit of a mad aria that she sings. Ruggiero now needs to go, as per the plan to keep Alcina on the hook and convince her that he needs to go off on a hunting trip so he can explore the island and look for escapes. So, strangely, his next aria, my Dearest Love, that he sings falsely to Alcina is the one he should have sung for real to, Bradamante. But like I said before, not always the brightest light.
- [76:36]
A
Ruggiero, well, he is in a bit of a pickle, a bit of a conundrum, because he wants to believe it's Bradamante, but he doesn't trust himself because so much that he had been believing was false. And it would be terrible to believe and be tricked again, but it would be equally terrible to reject. So I do have a little bit of pity for Ruggiero here.
- [76:59]
B
Maybe some of those cobwebs are still up there. Maybe he needs another minute or two. I do want to hear a little bit of this incredible Mio bel tesoro aria, because one of the highlights of this, for me, Pat, is the inclusion of the recorders into the instrumentation. It's an incredible color that happens.
- [77:18]
A
And that's unusual.
- [77:19]
B
It is not unusual, but it's unusual. Certainly in this piece. They haven't been featured yet, and they stand out really wonderfully in this aria.
- [77:28]
A
Rugio.
- [77:55]
C
Sam,
- [79:12]
A
That was Ruggiero in Alcina by Handel. And the clouds are lifting. He is seeing things more clearly. And, yes, he is still confused, but I love his duplicity in this song where he's saying, yes, I am true, but not to you. Yes, I am deeply in love, but not with you. It's kind of. Kind of fun.
- [79:34]
B
We can't forget that he's not only someone who was already engaged, he was a knight. So he's regaining his confidence, too.
- [79:42]
A
Yeah.
- [79:43]
B
And casting aside fear to take on a sorceress is not something that he would have ever worried about before.
- [79:50]
A
No.
- [79:51]
B
So he's regaining some of that swagger now.
- [79:53]
A
Yeah. To be more of a fit match for the amazing Bradamante.
- [79:57]
B
He's not there yet. I'm not ready to accept him yet on her behalf. But he's getting there, pal.
- [80:01]
A
He's working on it.
- [80:02]
B
At this point in the story, it becomes clear to Alcina that he's playing false with her, that he's trying to get a look at the perimeter to see how to escape her clutches. And she is sad about that. She's also just had a moment with little Roberto. He's come back and been promised by Alcina, somewhat cheekily, that he will soon be reunited with his father, whom we have learned was turned into a lion.
- [80:29]
A
Yeah.
- [80:30]
B
Alberto sings this wonderful Arya called Caught between hope and fear, he's getting what he wants from her, but he's also sensing that something's off. He's smart enough to know that not is all as it is.
- [80:40]
A
She's not trustworthy.
- [80:41]
B
She's not at all. But she's also not herself because she's feeling really betrayed at the moment, right? Because she loves Ruggiero, honestly. And he not only no longer loves her in the fake way, he's kind of making fun of her position by thinking he can trick her. So that betrayal does, though, in this last moment, remind her that she is a powerful queen and she just needs to remember to act like one. This is the longest aria of the piece. It's the centerpiece, really. Alcina's big moment. Ah, mio cor. Oh, my heart.
- [81:15]
A
Exquisite.
- [82:14]
C
Oh, Jesus.
- [86:27]
A
Oh, Alcina, this woman who is powerful, feeling powerless, returning to some of her power. It's. It's quite a wild ride.
- [86:37]
B
It's almost a mini opera in and of itself, this aria. So much happens afterwards. Ruggiero goes into the wood to find Bradamante. He's starting to trust that she is who she is. And they're making a plan to escape together. And they are discovered by Morgana, who is shocked, saddened and very upset, and has threatened to run back to her sister and tattle. I would too, if I were her. She's been wronged by so many different people in this story. And it brings us to a very important moment in the musical part of the story. And this is Ruggiero's aria Verdi Prati Verdant Meadows. Now that they've been caught, he fears that this beautiful wood that they're in will be soon transformed into a hellish landscape by Alcina. So he's imagining these trees in this beautiful space as emblematic of what's about to happen to him, because he's feeling bad that they got caught. Interestingly, Pat, there's a story surrounding this aria. It's famous for the singer. It was often repeated as encores in the early days. It was, of course, originally written for a castrato, as we talked about before. His name was Giovanni. I don't know if it's Carostini or Cerestini, but famously, he saw the music for this aria and rejected it. It wasn't good enough for him.
- [87:54]
A
Right.
- [87:54]
B
We talked about rock star status.
- [87:56]
A
Yes.
- [87:57]
B
And he just absolutely threw it back in the face of Handel, who marched to his house and, wagging, finger in the face, told him that, yes, he would sing this Arya as written or he would not be paid a single cent. Yeah, he carried the day. The composer had the power in that.
- [88:13]
A
Trust me, I'm Handel. I know what I'm doing.
- [88:15]
B
Exactly. Well, the castrato relented. It ended up being one of the highlights of the premiere. Yes, yes, we should hear a little bit of that for ourself. Because it really is gorgeous. Gorgeous writing for the voice,
- [89:09]
C
Sam. Jesus, Sam.
- [90:29]
B
Well, we've just heard Ruggiero bemoaning the possible future for he and Bradamante. Now that Alcina will be wise to their plot. Act two ends with Alcina. She has in fact become wise to their machinations. She knows that they're plotting against her and she is seeking not only the counsel, but the favor of the magical powers that have made her what she is. Yes, and realizing something that we as an audience have realized long ago. And it's that those powers have abandoned her. They are not answering the Fates, the Furies, wherever it's coming from, they're not responding.
- [91:03]
A
She's trying to conjure. And we even have a magic wand in this scene.
- [91:06]
B
Exactly. And it's totally impotent. It's not successful in bringing her back. What she needs to win the fight to come. So there's this great aria that ends the act. It's called Pallid Shades. She has this long mad scene, this accompanied reset before that. And then she sings this beautiful aria, realizing that her hours have left her. What is she to do now?
- [91:50]
C
Sa. Sam. It's ra. Sam.
- [94:04]
A
And that concludes the second act of our three act opera by Handel. Alcina. Act three.
- [94:23]
C
Sam.
- [94:56]
B
In Act 3, we find Morgana. Now realizing that it's probably in her best interest to reconcile with Orante. Yeah, trying to convince him in the aria. Believe me when I say I suffer that she's fully aware now that she was tricked by Bradamante and that he is her one true abiding love. That's followed close on by his next aria, One Moment of Happiness. Even though he rebuffs her initially, he realizes that he can't say no to her. He still loves her. So they do find each other again.
- [95:27]
A
Well, she's a sorceress too, after all.
- [95:28]
B
Absolutely. Or at the very least the sister of one. She has access to sorcery.
- [97:43]
A
Orante, in his aria, he's going to soften to her quite clearly, because he tells himself that moment of happiness, that's the compensation for all the suffering he's been through.
- [97:57]
B
Forgiveness is not a abiding theme of this opera in particular. At least not up until now. But he finds some in this moment, redeems himself a little bit.
- [98:05]
A
Well, he wants the girl.
- [98:06]
B
He does. Morgana's pretty cool.
- [98:08]
A
Yeah.
- [98:09]
B
Moving the action back to Ruggiero, who has now gathered all the strength he needs, and he is determined to leave the island by force. And he sings this aria in her rocky lair, and he's happy to fight. He's been told that the island is ringed by warriors, and he's planning to take them all on with his bare hands if he has to. And this is hero stuff, Pat. And what's better for hero stuff in music than the inclusion of French horns? The thing I love about this aria,
- [98:44]
C
Sa. Sam senior. Sa.
- [101:13]
A
This is opera for everyone. And that was Ruggiero in Handel's Altar, and he really is getting back to himself here. And I love the way he talks about the. The angry tigress in the piece we just heard.
- [101:28]
B
He's willing to battle just about any beast, and he imagines this angry tigress as the ultimate quarry. And he's up for it.
- [101:38]
A
Yeah, he's ready. He's. He's making himself once more worthy of Bradamante's love.
- [101:43]
B
Well, and she's becoming worthy of her own, because in this moment, she reminds us that she's a hero too. Fully herself. Now, no more Ricciardo nonsense. She's not leaving this island until she has freed all of Alcina's victims, not just her beloved Ruggiero.
- [102:00]
A
Yeah, a lot of people you would think would just. They've got a quest. I've got to find my beloved. He's in this terrible situation. No, no. She is truly a hero, a warrior. I must free all of these poor souls who've been entrapped by this evil enchantress.
- [102:15]
B
We should hear her sing about it a little bit. This is Two True Hearts, her final solo aria.
- [102:21]
A
Two true hearts reconciled in love.
- [102:24]
B
Finally,
- [102:39]
C
It.
- [103:21]
A
Bradamante is ready. She's ready to set things right. But we've got some other characters we have to check in on.
- [103:27]
B
We do. When we get to Alcina next, it's been made clear to her by orante that her defenses have been defeated, that there's no way of keeping Ruggiero and Bradamante from escaping the island. And in her final solo aria, miristano la lagrime, only tears remain to me. This is really her lament, Pat. This is her final gasp. And she's feeling really sorry for herself at this point.
- [103:55]
A
Oh, totally. She was the queen of the world. Queen of her Own island anyway, and in charge of everyone. And they were all just her playthings.
- [104:03]
B
But now it's all gone.
- [104:04]
A
So it's piteous is what it is.
- [104:06]
B
It is.
- [104:52]
C
Satan. J.
- [106:31]
A
That was our title character, Alcina, the all powerful. Oh, no, not so much anymore. All powerful. We've left Alcina at her lowest.
- [106:41]
B
We have. And you remember, Pat, two acts ago, when I asked, why is Uberto in this story? It can't just be for literary reference. No.
- [106:49]
A
Now, I'm not sure you entirely asked. I think you let us know he was gonna get to be important later on.
- [106:54]
B
He probably gave away too much of the joke. But Uberto comes back into play. Now, at this moment, when she's at her lowest, Umberto comes back in, and she finds cause with him to sharpen her fangs one last time. He's there. He's looking for his father. Of course, she had promised him that he would see his father again soon.
- [107:14]
A
Yeah, just to get rid of him.
- [107:16]
B
Absolutely.
- [107:16]
A
I'll lift his spirits falsely.
- [107:18]
B
But in this moment, he's there. There's the lion that his father has been transformed into. She thinks he doesn't know that hands him a spear to kill the lion. That's the test he must pass. But he knows, and he turns the spear on her instead.
- [107:32]
A
You said this so quickly, but it is such a dramatic moment where she tries to get this. This child, this young man looking to prove himself to. Yes. Slay the lion. And he. He doesn't. Because he is a clever young man.
- [107:47]
B
He's clever. He's not only been told, but he has intuited so much about what's going on in this island, and he not only refuses to kill his own transformed father, he turns the spear on her. So this last moment, this last chance to be her old self, that she tries.
- [108:04]
A
With a child.
- [108:04]
B
With a child. I also think this moment is important, Pat, because our sympathies for her have been aroused by that Arya before. We're feeling a little sorry for Altium in this moment.
- [108:14]
A
Yeah, well, then we remember who she really is.
- [108:15]
B
She takes it right back. In this moment. This is Barbara Callas, woman. This is Uberto's aria where he sings that he is not to be fooled into killing his own father, and that he will turn his blade on Alcina instead.
- [108:29]
A
Yes, Barbara. I was thinking, why is this woman. No, of course. It's like, barbarian.
- [108:34]
B
Yeah.
- [108:35]
A
You horrible, horrible, uncivilized thing.
- [108:39]
B
Callous woman.
- [109:52]
A
Good work, young Uberto. You are worthy of the magnificent Astolfo, who is a Mute supernumerary in this particular show, Alcina. But we have a fondness in our hearts for him from our prior experience.
- [110:06]
B
We don't get to see him, Pat, but I believe we see his reflection in his boy.
- [110:11]
A
Yes, that is true.
- [110:12]
B
And speaking of boy, let's not forget that originally this role would have been sung by an actual boy. Not a professional opera soprano.
- [110:22]
A
No. But probably a highly trained boy singer.
- [110:25]
B
Very much so.
- [110:26]
A
Yeah. You'd have to be to pull all this off. But just hooray for him for not falling for the tricks of Alcina.
- [110:34]
B
He speaks for all of us in this moment.
- [110:36]
A
Right.
- [110:36]
B
We come to a moment in this opera. We're at the end now, Pat, that is unique for me musically, because it's the first time we get an ensemble piece. There's a trio, like an actual trio, between Alcina, Bradamante and Ruggiero. It's not just reset back and forth, they're actually singing together. And it's the moment where all of the plot points are being resolved, all of the last comments are being made. Basically, all the cards are on the table, and we get to watch. We get to watch the end brought to us by this incredible trio of singers.
- [111:53]
C
Indian. Sa,
- [112:52]
A
Alcina, Bradamante, Ruggiero. They've brought it all together in that trio. And I think Ruggiero and Bradamante are definitely getting their happy ending.
- [113:02]
B
They're definitely getting their happy ending. A lot of work is done in this trio because there's a brief moment where Alcina tries to olive branch the two of them. They rebuff, and then she bites back. It's a microcosm of their relationships, the three of them. When it ends, the focus of the drama becomes the destruction of the urn. The urn that contains the power that she's been drawing upon for all these years.
- [113:24]
A
We haven't yet mentioned this urn. It does appear now and again during this show, and it also is the same source of power that was dealt with in the Vivaldi opera Orlando Furioso, which was the source of her power. And specifically there, we're told it's Merlin's ashes.
- [113:45]
B
Right. They're not specific about that in this one, though. It's just a vessel. It's a MacGuffin, using a movie term, that contains her power, and it just needs to be destroyed so that she will be without it going forward.
- [113:57]
A
How handy that there's a physical thing that you can destroy to destroy her power.
- [114:01]
B
It really makes life a lot simpler, doesn't it? When it's not just metaphysical, it's actually physical. Well, there's a scuffle to destroy. It eventually does get destroyed, and she is now finally vanquished in a way that she can't return from. The opera ends, of course, with a chorus. Pat.
- [114:21]
A
Because it's a baroque opera.
- [114:22]
B
It's a baroque opera. You have to end with spectacle. This is where a little bit of the Frenchness of his experiences, Handel's experiences, comes in. The chorus is, of course, the reconstituted beings from rocks and beasts. All her victims, they've come back to life, initially a little bit confused, but relief and happiness soon follows. I love this ending so much. There's a first chorus, and then there's this part called the tambourino, which is this drum call. It sounds like Renaissance music. It sounds like medieval music almost. It's a call to order. And then the chorus follows on with this incredible happiness. The happy ending that you just mentioned.
- [115:02]
A
Yeah, well, it's baroque opera. We must have a happy ending. Generally either a choral piece or all of the characters singing together. In this case, it is the choral piece. It's just. It is resolution. We have set the world right here
- [115:17]
B
Happy is this day they say they
- [115:19]
A
do oh, and happy is today Jeff, thank you so much for joining me to talk about this opera. Talk about just Handel and all the things that we find so fun about this art form.
- [115:31]
B
An absolute pleasure, Pat. Thank you for giving me a reason to dive back into Alcina. It's been an absolute blast.
- [115:39]
A
Well, everyone, enjoy the ending of Alcina by Handel.
- [115:52]
C
Sam. Sa. Sam,
- [117:19]
A
Thanks for listening to this episode of Opera for Everyone. Opera for Everyone airs every Sunday morning from 9 to 11am Mountain Time on 89.1 Khol in Jackson, Wyoming. If you've missed any of today's show, you can find this episode and many others on the Opera for Everyone podcast. And while you're there, please subscribe, rate and comment. By doing this, you'll be helping others to find us. I know opera can be unfamiliar and challenging, but everyone loves a good story, and a story set to music is even better. That's why the mission of this show is to make opera enjoyable for everyone. Opera for Everyone.