It was Francesca Caccini’s score, & Vache Baroque’s performance, that surprised & captivated: La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton International Festival

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero – Jon Stainsby, Camilla Seale – Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina; Camilla Seale, Jon Stainsby, Phoebe Rayner, Vache Baroque, director: Eloise Lally, music director: Jonathan Darbourne; Buxton International Festival at Pavilion Arts Centre

Dazzling instrumental playing with music that seduced in a trifle over-serious staging but with some fine individual performances make this a notable revival of Francesca Caccini’s rarely staged gem

La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina by Francesca Caccini has the reputation as the first opera by a woman composer. Certainly, it is Caccini’s only surviving opera, written for the Medici court in Florence in 1625. It remains, however, on the fringe of the repertoire though Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) staged it in 2015 [see my review]

Vache Baroque have been presenting their production of Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton International Festival in the Pavilion Arts Centre (seen 21 July 2026), directed by Eloise Lally (who directed Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore for St Paul’s Opera last year, see my review) with Jonathan Darbourne as music director. Designs were by Zahra Mansouri and lighting by Katie Kelly. Camilla Seale was Alcina, Jon Stainsby was Ruggiero, Phoebe Rayner was Melissa and Filippo Turkheimer was Nettuno with Betty Makharinsky, Harriet Burns, Alina Miyagi Magnell and Tom Kelly. Jonathan Darbourne directed from the harpsichord with an instrumental ensemble of three violins, viola da gamba, violone, three recorders, three sackbuts, theorbo and organ. The staging encompassed the whole stage with the instrumental ensemble spread around the auditorium. Caccini’s full scoring does not survive; no credit was given in the programme so I presume that it is to Darbourne we have to thank for the particular orchestration here.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero – Phoebe Rayner – Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The plot, based on Ariosto, is similar to the one from Handel only here Ruggiero is rescued by another sorceress, Melissa, and Alcina turns people into plants rather than animals. Eloise Lally’s concept of the plot took her some way from Caccini’s court entertainment which was written for a visiting prince (and originally ended with a horse ballet). Here magic was played down. Lally explained her concept in the programme book:

‘Set within a world on the brink of collapse, this work explores the tension between preservation and reinvention. Through the opposing forces of Alcina and Melissa, it questions who has the right to shape the future: those who uphold existing systems of power, or those who seek to dismantle and rebuild them entirely.’

Katie Kelly’s lighting was certainly atmospheric but it did rather obscure some of the details of the staging, making the plot a little opaque. The production worked best when it forgot about explaining the mechanics of the plot and concentrated on personal interactions and the sheer seductive power of Caccini’s music.

The sound world was very much that of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) with log fluid recitative lines shaped around the text, plenty of instrumental ritornelli and dances, and an instrumental palate that used groups of instruments in blocks. The result here dazzled and engaged, and in Vache Baroque’s vital performance made you wonder why this music is not heard more. Judging from audience reactions it was Caccini’s score, and Vache Baroque’s performance, that surprised and captivated.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero – Jon Stainsby, Camilla Seale & ensemble – Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The production tried to avoid the trope of Alcina as evil yet seductive sorceress, though it has to be said that that is what Caccini and her librettist would have expected. As it was, you felt the concept was too earnest and lacked the required dramatic bravura at times. Camilla Seale made a sympathetic, mellifluous Alcina, singing with well-modulated tones. Her Ruggiero, Jon Stainsby was suitably vivid and not too passive. Some of the strongest and most compelling scenes were the ones between these two, especially towards the end when Ruggiero became more confident and Alcina more desperate, simply two people struggling with love and its various aspects.

Phoebe Rayner’s Melissa was the ‘good’ sorceress, though she spent much of the opera as Atlas. Rayner was firm and perhaps a tad discreet, this Melissa was definitely serious. Her final struggle with Searle’s Alcina brought a nice element of drama to proceedings.

The ensemble worked hard, encompassing both Alcina’s retinue as well as the people turned into plants by Alcina. Filippo Turkheimer was a vivid Nettuno in the prologue. His
performance compelling enough, not needing the extra bits of staging
presented here. Tom Kelly having impressed in the prologue, was equally engaging as a fisherman on Alcina’s island, whilst Harriet Burns made a strong showing as Oreste, Alcina’s oracle.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero – Jon Stainsby, Harriet Burns, Tom Kelly – Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

I rather echo one of my colleagues who commented that the production worked best when not taking itself too seriously, and I remember that BREMF’s production as being serious fun. What made the event was the vivid yet sophisticated sound-world conjured by Jonathan Darbourne and his ensemble, and it made you regret the loss of Caccini’s other music.