Handel was never one to do something in half-measures; his operas, in the words of John Matsumoto Giampetro, are mythic, grand, even preposterous.
This is certainly the case with Alcina, a three-and-an-half hour “extravaganza” with 25 arias based on episodes from Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando furiosa — a wellspring of inspiration for the composer. It’s big. It’s Baroque. And at 6:30 p.m. tonight in McKnight Hall, Chautauquans will have the first of two chances to see Voice students of the 2024 Opera Conservatory bring the story of witchcraft, seduction, and true love to life, boiled down to its very essence, over the course of just two hours.
“Alcina is about love, and the pursuit of love,” said Matsumoto Giampetro, interim director of the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory and stage director for Alcina. “All artists have been pursuing that throughout history. … We’ve boiled it down to the question, the essence of the opera, of who can restore our moral compass? Who is the person who can restore our humanity, who takes us out of who we are, and reminds us of what we truly believe in?”
This evening in McKnight, and again at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Chautauquans will meet the witch Alcina, who collects lovers and transforms them — depending on her mood — into rocks, waves, or wild beasts.
When the young knight Ruggerio arrives, he too falls under Alcina’s enchantments, but two surprising things happen: Alcina truly does fall in love with him, and Ruggiero’s wife comes ashore Alcina’s enchanted island, intent on saving her husband.
“It’s a magical, mystical story, but if you get right down to it, it’s about relationships,” Matsumoto Giampetro said. “It’s about how, even in relationships, we can lose ourselves and we can lose the idea of what love actually is. As the story plays out, the characters, and the audience, realize, ‘Oh, love isn’t just being enamored, or captured in the thrill of the moment.’ ”
Key to Alcina is each of the characters’ humanity, Matsumoto Giampetro said — even that of Alcina herself. For the Opera Conservatory’s production, Voice students Jiyu Kim and Sam Higgins will be in the roles of Alcina and Ruggiero, respectively, and while productions in years past saw the casts switching from the first and second performance, this year only one role will see two portrayals — with Donald Voiers in the role of Oronte today, and Ghalip Ekber performing on Thursday.
The 20 students in this year’s Opera Conservatory, Matsumoto Giampetro said, are extraordinary — the highest caliber of singers he’s worked with in his 18 years with the Voice Program. He’s particularly excited to highlight Higgins as a counter-tenor, a vocal range that hasn’t been featured as prominently in the program before. Each student, Matsumoto Giampetro said, has been “brilliant,” especially given how concentrated the program is this year — just 20 students, over five weeks over Chautauqua’s Summer Assembly Season.
“Everybody just came in, ready to work to mount this production in basically 12 days,” he said. “That’s incredible on its own, but even more so with the focus we place on going through the process of each student truly developing a role.”
That development was something Marlena Malas, the late director of the Opera Conservatory, took very seriously, Matsumoto Giampetro said.
“That was the point of the program for her,” he said. “The wisdom was that the focus is on these students, with this opportunity now to work with Baroque opera — which is a specific style they don’t necessarily get to work on in their studies at school, but is still so timeless — so that they can develop and learn a role without fear. It’s about understanding the process of developing a character and performing a role for the first time with the support system of the faculty here, and of their peers.”
