ALCINA
by George Frideric Handel
Premiere 25th of July 2024
After last year’s major success with the Nordic premiere of Rameau’s opera Dardanus, it’s now time for a new opera production at the Confidencen Opera & Music Festival. In the summer of 2024, we will present one of the most famous operas of the Baroque era: Handel’s Alcina.
The premiere at Covent Garden in London on April 16, 1735 was a grandiose spectacle with singers and dancers, magnificent costumes and scenography, and not least, outstanding music. During the Confidencen Opera & Music Festival 2024, our beautiful theater is transformed into Alcina’s enchanted island. An island full of seduced and scorned lovers, petrified wild animals and Alcina’s innermost feelings. An island where nothing is as it seems.
The Festival’s artistic and musical director, violinist Peter Spissky:
“Handel’s music reflects the psychological dimensions of Alcina’s journey from power to love and vulnerability. Alcina’s majestic passages at the beginning of the opera, where she appears strong and powerful, transform into delicate and emotional arias towards the end, where her vulnerability and doubts emerge. Handel paints the inner conflict and emotions of love in a subtle and poignant way.”
Peter Spissky has invited the opera and theater director Helena Röhr to stage Alcina.
Director Helena Röhr:
“Everyone says that Alcina is a sorceress as if it were something negative. I believe there are other ways to understand her. When Alcina falls deeply in love with Ruggiero and experiences sincere and mutual love for the first time, it unsettles her. When Ruggiero suddenly leaves her, her magic doesn’t work as before and Alcina must delve deeper into herself than she has ever done before. She needs to jump into the cold, cold water, to see if she can still breathe under the surface.”
Come and be enchanted by an outer and inner adventure in Handel’s masterpiece Alcina at Confidencen this summer! Conducted by Peter Spissky, the Confidence Opera & Music Festival Orchestra and the brilliant singers make the music from 1735 sway and the story flow across the edge of the stage from Alcina’s island into our present.
Artistic team
Musical direction: Peter Spissky
Director: Helena Röhr
Choreographer: Joakim Stephenson
Set design: Helena Röhr
Light design: Hannele Philipson & Sofia Linde
Costume design: Anna Kjellsdotter
Make up & Hair design: Cais-Marie Björnlod
Cast
Alcina-Helena Schuback
Ruggiero-Kristina Hammarström
Morgana-Jessica Elevant
Oronte-Thomas Volle
Bradamante-Linnea Andreassen
Melisso-Will Frost
Confidencen Opera & Music Festival Orchestra under direction of Peter Spissky
The opera is performed in Italian.
Performance length: Approx. 2 hours and 45 minutes including one intermission
Performances:
25 July Premiere!
27 July
28 July
30 July
1 August
3 August
4 August
6 August
8 August
11 August
ALCINA is part of the Confidencen Opera & Music Festival, taking place from July 25 to August 18, 2024 (Note: See specific performance dates for ALCINA). Tickets for other events during the festival will become available for purchase in April.
Opera intro
One hour before Alcina a fifteen-minute introduction will be given in the Confidencen dining room by the festival’s artistic director, Peter Spissky.
Post-performance talk
28/7 & 4/8
Are you curious about the process behind the creation of the performance Alcina?
You are welcome to stay in the auditorium after the performance as we get the inside scoop from some of the opera’s singers and musicians in a panel discussion.
Photo Alcina: Jannica Honey
Photo orchestra: Hans Nilsson
