Bampton’s Deanery Gardens provide the perfect location for the summer 2024 production on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 July starting at 7.00pm, from Bampton Classical Opera who are presenting Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s bubbling comedy ‘L’isola d’Alcina’, with a libretto by Giovanni Bertati. It will be sung in a new English translation by Gilly French as ‘Alcina’s Island’. Performances will be conducted by Thomas Blunt and directed by Jeremy Gray.
‘L’isola d’Alcina’ is loosely based on the character of the sorceress Alcina from Ariosto’s epic Orlando furioso – an Englishman, Frenchman, Spaniard, Italian and German get washed up on Alcina’s magical island where the seductive and beautiful sorceress (although 800 years old) has a habit of discarding her lovers and turning them into rocks or animals.
Gazzaniga (1743-1818), wrote at least 50 operas, of which ‘L’isola d’Alcina’ was one of the most successful. His most famous was Don Giovanni, 1787 (staged by Bampton in 1997 and 2004, and performed at the Royal College of Music in November 2023). The first performance of ‘L’isola d’Alcina’ was at Teatro San Moisè, Venice in 1772, and it was widely seen in Europe until 1785. There were performances at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket, London in 1776 and 1777 – but probably not in England since then.
In this effervescent and fast-moving opera set on a tropical desert island paradise, Bertati and Gazzaniga pit the (perhaps limited) wits of a motley collection of Europeans against the dangerous amorous snares of the insatiable Alcina. Fortunately, the Europeans are assisted by two charming but disloyal resident nymphs, with whom they eventually escape from the island. Much fun is made of the linguistic confusions of the shipwrecked group, in contrast to the passion and discontent of the ageless but perhaps weary sorceress. The music is fluent, cheerful and graceful, propelling the story forward with restless energy and will be conducted by Thomas Blunt.
The wonderful cast includes four singers returning to Bampton: Sarah Chae and Owain Rowlands (Salieri ‘At the Venice Fair’ 2023); Jonathan Eyers (Haydn ‘Fool Moon’ 2022). Inna Husieva, Charlotte Badham, Monwabisi Lindi, Simon Brown, and Magnus Walker are making their company débuts.
The delightful Deanery Garden at Bampton provides a charming and picturesque venue for open-air opera, with an excellent natural acoustic. Audiences are encouraged to bring their own garden chairs to Bampton and enjoy a pre-performance or interval picnic.
Bampton Classical Opera stages productions in rural venues in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire as well as regularly in London at St John’s Smith Square. Other significant venues and festivals have included Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, Buxton Festival, Cheltenham Festival and Theatre Royal Bath. Eschewing familiar repertoire, Bampton concentrates instead on rarities from the late eighteenth century, sung in lively new English translations, and has given many enterprising performances of forgotten operas. Amongst these have been UK premières of Bertoni Orfeo, Marcos Portugal The Marriage of Figaro, Paer Leonora, Benda Romeo and Juliet, Gluck Il Parnaso confuso, Philemon and Baucis and Salieri Falstaff and La fiera di Venezia.
They were also a finalist in the Rediscovered Opera category of the 2020 International Opera Awards for Stephen Storace Gli sposi malcontenti (Bride and Gloom), and last year’s production of Salieri La fiera di Venezia (At the Venice Fair) was shortlisted for the 2023 Awards.
Tickets for Bampton are £42 (under 18: half-price) and can be purchased from bamptonopera.org.
