Ariodante, Barbican, London, review: Contains some of Handel's most extraordinary depictions of derangement
Mezzo Alice Coote replaced Joyce DiDonato at short notice to sing Ariodante in The English Concert's latest instalment in their series of Handel's operas
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Your support makes all the difference.Period chamber orchestra The English Concert, under the magisterial direction of Harry Bicket, brought Ariodante, the latest instalment in their outstanding series of Handel operas, to the Barbican. It was an evening of marvellous voices digging deep into Handel’s unparalleled genius for emotional veracity and melodic invention, containing as it does some of his most extraordinary depictions of derangement
Mezzo Alice Coote replaced Joyce DiDonato at short notice to sing Ariodante. Experienced in this role, she provided one of the evening’s transcendent moments in the show-stopper ‘Scherza infida’, where Ariodante believes himself betrayed by Princess Ginevra, and Handel gives him the most heart-rending lament over strings and a high bassoon. Another late substitution, again a total triumph, was Mary Bevan as Dalinda, Princess Ginevra’s lady-in-waiting, drawn into a plot against her by the villain Polinesso. Bevan’s sensuous, yielding soprano beautifully dramatised Dalinda’s seduction and infatuation, which together with Sonia Prina’s contralto Polinesso allowed full heft to Handel’s erotic charge.
Matthew Brook’s King of Scotland shone as he moved from bluff bonhomie to a man destroyed by the ruination of all his dreams. In Bicket’s finely-judged calibrations each orchestral gesture was crisply defined, every fragile nuance allowed to breathe. Next March comes Rinaldo. Book now.
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