Alcina’s Island is a 3-act dramma giocoso (comic opera), loosely based on the character of the sorceress Alcina from Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando furioso, which was also the source for Handel’s far more serious and literary Alcina.  The successful Venetian composer Gazzaniga wrote at least 50 operas, of which L’isola d’Alcina was one of the most widely performed - his most famous score was Don Giovanni, 1787, performed by Bampton in 1997 and 2004.

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.  An Englishman, Frenchman, Spaniard, Italian and German all 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, animals or trees.

Alcina - Susanna Fairbairn
Lesbia - Sarah Chae
Clizia - Charlotte Badham
Brunoro - Monwabisi Lindi
La Rose - Simon Brown
James - Magnus Walker
Don Lopes- Jonathan Eyers
Baron Brikbrak - Owain Rowlands

Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera

Conductor: Thomas Blunt
Director: Jeremy Gray

https://www.bamptonopera.org/eventfuturedetail.htm?event=761