Engaging charm: Bampton Classical Opera in a delightful version of Alcina that does not take itself too seriously

Gazzaniga: Alcina’s Island – Inna Husieva – Bampton Classical Opera (Photo: Anthony Hall/Bampton Classical Opera)

Gazzaniga: L’Isole d’Alcina (Alcina’s Island); Inna Husieva, Sarah Chae, Charlotte Badham, Dafydd Allen, Monwabisi Lindi, Jonathan Eyers, Magnus Walker, Owain Rowlands, director Jeremy Grey, Chroma, conductor Thomas Blunt; Bampton Classical Opera at Smith Square Hall
Reviewed 13 September 2024

A comic take on Alcina with an opera that does not take itself too seriously in an engaging performance that showcased Inna Husieva’s charmer of a sorceress

Last week we caught Vache Baroque in Pergolesi’s 1736 opera, L’Olimpiade [see my review] with a libretto by Metastasio that wants to be serious and consider moral problems but uses dramaturgical infelicities that mean that modern audiences have difficulty taking the work’s resolution seriously. 

Then this week, Bampton Classical Opera brought their production of Gazzaniga’s L’Isole d’Alcina (Alcina’s Island) to London. Written in 1771 and premiered in Venice, Giovanni Bertati’s libretto does not take opera seria too seriously. It begins like the classic joke, an Englishman, a Frenchman, an Italian and a Spaniard are washed up on a desert island. Not any old island, but Alcina’s island, yet the time period is contemporary and the four men (later five) are well aware of Alcina and her tale, told in Ariosto. The result is a delightful comic operatic romp.

On Friday 13 Setpember 2024, Bampton Classical Opera presented Gazzaniga’s Alcina’s Island at Smith Square Hall (St John’s Smith Square) in a production directed and designed by Jeremy Gray with Thomas Blunt conducting Chroma, with Inna Husieva, Sarah Chae, Charlotte Badham, Dafydd Allen, Monwabisi Lindi, Jonathan Eyers, Magnus Walker and Owain Rowlands.

Gazzaniga: Alcina’s Island – Magnus Walker, Monwabisi Lindi, Jonathan Eyers – Bampton Classical Opera (Photo: Anthony Hall/Bampton Classical Opera)

If the name of Giuseppe Gazzaniga seems familiar, that is because he and Giovanni Bertati wrote Don Giovanni in 1787, which was plagiarised by Da Ponte for Mozart! Gazzaniga’s L’Isole d’Alcina was premiered in Venice at the Teatro San Moise, where Bertati was principal comic librettist. The theatre’s first opera production was Monteverdi’s Arianna in 1640 and its final productions were a series of farse by Rossini.

Bampton performed Gazzaniga’s L’Isole d’Alcina in Gilly French’s English translation as Alcina’s Island. Jeremy Gray’s fixed setting displayed tempting tropical island views with rich vegetation, a sun lounger and two stone animals (Alcina’s previous lovers). The libretto does not take the nationalities of the men too seriously, they were simply causes for humour so the Spaniard is flamboyant, the Englishman is uptight and much is made of the German being unable to speak Italian (here he could not speak English). Gray did not take them too seriously either with each man kitted out in clothes that clearly indicated his nationality.

So, as the opera opened Dafydd Allen’s La Rose, Monwabisis Lindi’s Brunoro, Jonathan Eyers’ Don Lopes and Magnus Walker’s James clambered onto the island where they first encountered Alcina’s attendants, Sarah Chae as Lesbia and Charlotte Badham as Clizia, and then Alcina herself, Inna Husieva. Act One was mainly taken up with the men vowing not to fall in love with Alcina and then doing so, along with drinking from the fountain of forgetfulness (here a cocktail bar). La Rose (Dafydd Allen) drinks too much and collapses and needs reviving with a song, which leads to a finale with a bizarre Eurovision Song Contest sort of feel – won by Alcina (Inna Husieva) singing in Venetian dialect!

Gazzaniga: Alcina’s Island – Sarah Chae, Monwabisi Lindi, Charlotte Badham – Bampton Classical Opera (Photo: Anthony Hall/Bampton Classical Opera)

During the second act, Husieva’s Alcina flirts with all the men, and chooses a favourite. But a fifth man is washed up, Brikbrak (Owain Rowlands), a German whose conversation is bad English larded with German and lots of comments about not following the language. The two attendants (Chae and Badham) take him to one side and protect him from Alcina’s magic. Things start to go badly for Husieva’s Alcina as the Frenchman is convinced he has a rival and plots revenge, whilst Rowlands’ Brikbrak cuts off a lock of her hair to curtail her power. The opera ends with the men and the attendants preparing to leave the island as the rescue ship appears, but Alcina threatens to unleash her dragons. The result is a curious cliffhanger, neither happy nor tragic, up to us to decide.

The result was terrific fun, ever quite taking itself seriously but giving the music all the care it deserved. Gazzaniga’s score was certainly not without interest, it zipped along at a nice pace and arias were generally quite short, yet not without technical difficulty. Interestingly, the men were introduced to us at the beginning with a pair of quartets, and each character only really got a single main aria.

Gazzaniga: Alcina’s Island – Owain Rowlands, Sarah Chae Bampton Classical Opera (Photo: Anthony Hall/Bampton Classical Opera)

The focus was inevitably on Inna Husieva’s Alcina, though like most divas her entrance came quite late in Act One. Husieva was a complete delight, rocking a series of outrageous outfits and singing with wonderful creamy tone and superb sense of line, yet fine English diction. More than that, she incarnated the sexy vamp throughout the opera and watching her eat a banana (yes, like that) was a superb moment. When the going got tough later in the opera, Husieva brought a touching element to Alcina, yet went out in a blaze of glory at the end.

As her attendants, Sarah Chae and Charlotte Badham made a winning double act, both full of lively charm. Each got an aria to show off, but really it was their sense of ensemble and bonhomie that came over. Another complete delight.

The five men clearly had great fun with overdoing the national characteristics (and bear in mind that the Spaniard was played by a New Zealander, the Italian by a South African, the Frenchman and the German by a Welshmen). Dafydd Allen was all over the top drama as Frenchman La Rose, particular in the section where he gets jealous. Monwabisi Lindi showed lively charm as the Italian Brunoro, whilst Jonathan Eyers was a wonderfully over the top Spaniard, Don Lopes. Magnus Walker was the uptight Englishman, James. Owain Rowlands brought off the tricky task making Brikbrak’s mash-up of German and English funny.

Recitatives rattled along nicely. This was one of those comic dramas that knew not to go on too long, though in the tricky hall acoustic the English translation did not always come over well. Placed behind the singers, Thomas Blunt and Chroma made a fine contribution and there were plenty of little touches to enjoy in Gazzaniga’s writing, with the orchestra including oboes and horns.

Having seen plenty of productions of Handel’s Alcina where the drama is not taken seriously, it was a pleasure to come across such an engagingly involving account of an 18th century opera where the drama was not taken seriously, but as ever with Bampton, the music was.