Month: October 2023

After a successful run of Wagner’s Das Rheingold in August, Seattle Opera is back with Handel’s Alcina.  From its premiere at Covent Garden in 1735, Alcina was one of Handel’s most successful operas, with a record 18 subsequent performances.  But Alcina’s early success wasn’t enough to keep it on stage. Performances were scarce until it emerged in the 1950s as a vehicle for soprano Joan Sutherland.  This marks the first time the Seattle Opera has staged Alcina.  Despite the Emerald City’s vibrant early-music community, Alcina’s arrival also marks one of only a handful of times the company has attempted an opera by one of the Baroque masters. 

Along with Ariodante and Orlando, Alcina is based on Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando Furioso.  Stocked with magical elements, chivalry and sometimes raw emotion, it is ideal source material for Baroque opera.  Alcina begins with Melissa and Bradamante (disguised as her brother Ricciardo) arriving on Alcina’s enchanted island looking for Bradamante’s lover Ruggiero, who has gone missing.  Ruggiero appears soon enough, bewitched by one of Alcina’s spells.  From this point forward, the six principal characters weave their numerous plights together through multiple da capo arias and vocal acrobatics.  Eventually, Ruggiero is freed from Alcina’s spell and returns to Bradamente – and in the end Alcina accepts losing Ruggiero as her powers fade.         

Continue reading Seattle Opera makes a rare foray into Baroque opera with Handel’s Alcina

In late 2020, I decided to listen to Beethoven’s 32 sonatas in chronological order.  Consider it my take on one of those pandemic-era “deep dives” – sourdough bread, birding – that we all took.

My love for Beethoven dates back to 1996, when a dear friend introduced me to classical music for the first time.  In the years that followed, I listened to individual sonatas on and off, but never in order. But my pandemic-era exploration showed them in a new light.  Over the course of two weeks, and with the help of a dozen different pianists, I listened to them all.  As a body of work, they are profound, humorous, elegant, and, of course, transformatively inventive.

Continue reading A tale of two composers: Emanuel Ax explores Beethoven and Schoenberg in Seattle recital