Handel - Amadigi di Gaula (Buxton, 2026)

George Frideric Handel - Amadigi di Gaula

Buxton International Festival, 2026

Erin Helyard, Olivia Fuchs, Timothy Morgan, Rowan Pierce, Hilary Cronin, James Hall

Buxton Opera House - 20th July 2026

He was a bit of a genius, this George Frideric Handel. I realise I'm not making any startlingly original observations there but having seen it at this year's Buxton International Festival's production it seems that in Amadigi di Gaula - and quite a few other Handel operas apparently - he was the originator of the game show concept of Love Island and The Bachelor, or at the very least he anticipated their existence 300 years before the event! Ok, that is perhaps not the greatest claim for the genius of the composer, but what the Buxton Festival production did was show that Handel was certainly in tune with the public's taste for highly charged (and contrived) romance and love drama entertainments. The real cleverness of the production however is in how it shows that Handel's opera seria music - which could potentially come across as quite dry and stuffy - actually has a great sense of fun.

In which case it's the director Olivia Fuchs who is perhaps the real genius here in recognising or finding a way that makes the hothouse love entanglements of figures in a magical fantasy actually relate to something we are familiar with - or at least can recognise - in the modern world, and translate those high-flown melodramatic sentiments into something that still has meaning and relevance to a modern audience. Instead of viewing it in its 18th century incarnation of a Paladin and the Prince of Thrace both being enamoured with the daughter of the King of the Fortunate Isles while a sorceress concocts spells to win the Paladin for herself, the director sets the opera as a reality game show on 'Melissa's Island' where the competition is played out, the contestants undertaking hazardous tasks to find out who is worthy of true love.

There is no sense of any half measure here: director Olivia Fuchs and set designer Eleanor Bull go all out to set the drama as a Love Island TV game show and it works so perfectly you would think that it was written to be presented this way. OK, I don't think those competing for the affections of prospective partners on Love Island threaten to kill themselves and each other quite as often as they do in Handel's Amidigi di Gaula, but as I haven't actually watched any of the reality game shows it is based on, I couldn't say for sure. I have seen newspaper reports of fatalities and contestants suffering serious consequences following their appearances on these shows, so Handel or his librettist (who has not been positively identified as far as I know) may even have been aware of the stakes involved in such public displays of affection and rejection.

But then it's long been a feature of opera - and apparently in life before opera if one can imagine such barbaric times - that love cuts deep. The contestants here on Melissa's Island, or the noble lords and ladies in Amadigi di Gaula if you prefer, are young and headstrong, self-absorbed and beautiful, and presumably used to lovers falling at their fee; yet errors of judgement and misfortunate timing all conspire to make the choice of an ideal romantic partner a lot more difficult than it ought to be. The Buxton production brings out this character brilliantly during the overture, Melissa the hostess/sorceress inviting a line-up of contestants onto the stage, each full of themselves and confident of their charms, leaving us with only the host and the three finalists to get the right partners for each other.

The production is more than just a clever eye-popping set design or clever conceit imposed on Handel. The direction is superb, the figures never resorting to just standing facing the audience and working their way through da capo arias. The four lovers are given some measure of personality and thus a degree of sympathy, without ever getting too deep or serious. I say that but there are deep emotions of all kinds, laments, joyful rhythms and dances and the director makes sure that none of them are just left to go to waste, giving the singers room to express themselves with in it.

Whatever you think of the production - and everyone I spoke to or heard speak about it loved it - at the heart of it all is the music of Handel which explores the range of all those emotions. You would think that the opera seria format and the delivery of da capo arias might be restrictive, that Handel's musical style is a little too elegant and artificial to be matched with a bright modern set, modern attitudes and quite a few added comic touches and nods to the audience, but in reality the artificiality of the setup perfectly matches the artificiality of the contrived idealistic views of the lover/contestants: all of it contrived of course to delight and entertain an audience.

Handel's opera was indeed a great success when it premiered in London in 1715, the composer proving that he had his finger on the pulse of what the public wanted following the success of his first Italian opera in London, Rinaldo (1711), also drawn from Ariosto's Orlando Furioso; Amadigi's original production even employing some spectacular magic effects of its own for the delight of its audience. And indeed, the composer would go on to write quite a few more successful magic operas (or further seasons of Love Island if you like) in Orlando (1733), Ariodante (1735) and Alcina (1735), all likewise drawn from Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. I suspect that the way it was presented 300 years ago might not have quite the same impact today, so it is entirely right that the Buxton production should do the same for a modern audience.

With the English Consort orchestra conducted by Erin Helyard, the performance did justice to Handel's score, employing theorbo, recorder and harpsichord without it ever feeling like this was 'old music'. That's a credit to the production as a whole, the music working perfectly with the tone of the comedy and sincerity of the sentiments expressed and played out on the stage. The singing and the dramatic performances were all excellent. One of the benefits of this work is that with only four characters, the love complications are not overly complicated - or need not be as complicated as these figures make it - and each character - all equally deserving of love - get the opportunity to express their feelings in beautiful arias.

Melissa of course the most interesting figure as the sorceress; the schemer, plotting and creating drama, the role was wonderfully sung by Hilary Cronin - who sang in another Handel four-hander Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in Buxton in 2024 - supplying plenty of character. Timothy Morgan, taking on the role at short notice was a headstrong Amadigi, the character's easy going charm not quite as easy to relate to, but the countertenor played the role with smooth confidence. Rowan Pierce was a bright Oriana and James Hall an impetuous Dardano; more than just love interest secondary characters, they have a vital role to play in their struggle to assert themselves against these powerful forces that would direct their lives in another direction from their hearts. Musically this hit all the right points, the strings striking a dance to the beat of life, the oboe and recorder woodwinds capturing the lyricism of the emotions in this revitalising interpretation of a delightful Handel opera.

External links: Buxton International Festival

Handel - Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Buxton, 2024)

George Frideric Handel - Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno

Buxton International Festival, 2024

Christian Curnyn, Jacopo Spirei, Anna Dennis, Hilary Cronin, Hilary Summers, Jorge Navarro Colorado

Buxton Opera House - 18th July 2024

Performances of Handel operas can be hard work for the audience as much as a challenge for a director to make something of them, but they really shouldn't be. His oratorio works evidently need an extra little bit of dramatic action when performed as staged works, and those that you could categorise as allegorical fables even more so. The Buxton International Festival production of Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno ('The Triumph of Time and Disillusion' as it is normally referred to in English) does its best to find a suitable context to get across the moral message without being too stuffy about it, and if it doesn't entirely make it work dramatically, it at least succeeds in getting across the meaning of the work and highlights the extraordinary beauty of the piece.

Much as he 'excavated' Rossini's La donna del lago to bring it into the present day for Buxton in 2022, director Jacopo Spirei comes up with a fine modern-day situation that establishes the right character for each of the allegorical figures of Beauty, Pleasure, Time and Disillusion (or Disenchantment but closer to meaning Truth). Not quite as hard-hitting as Krysztof Warlikowsi's production for Aix-en-Provence in 2016, here these figures are at least more clearly of a whole, depicted as a family in a drab living room which you could probably call life. It's Christmas time moreover, so there is a little optimism at home even if it's just the delusion of Beauty who thinks this is the way it will always be, that nothing will ever change. Beauty and her sister Pleasure certainly live in the moment, but their father and mother, Time and Disillusion, have some harsh realities to lay out before them.

And they don't mince their words. Well, the words are fairly flowery, as you would expect in a Handel work, one moreover with a libretto written by a Cardinal, Benedetto Pamphili, but the director has a way of making sure the truths hit home. Not so much perhaps in Act I, which drags its feet a little, as do Beauty and Pleasure who refuse to accept the wisdom and experience of their elders. The Second Act, which has one or two of Handel's most beautiful arias including the famous and beautiful Lascia la spina, is a different matter as reality starts to hit home. The opening of the Christmas presents for Beauty turns out to be is a disappointment, but it's not half as stripping of any illusions as Time dragging a coffin onto the stage to remind her that Beauty fades and dies. Nothing too subtle about the delivery of that message.

That's as much as you can do without going the full Warlikowski with this work, where the director of the Aix production layered on elements of the personification of these competing ideas as being on opposing hemispheres of the brain and made allusions to the works of Derrida. What designer Anna Bonomelli manages to do to elevate the Buxton production to a suitable sphere somewhere between reality and moralising is place this within a beautiful set with effective lighting design that contributes to establishing the nature and tone of the work.

It can still be a bit of a slog but that's the nature of Pamphili's somewhat overly florid and solemn libretto, and it's also the nature of Handel's graceful musical treatment, striking something of a mournful note throughout. There are no Vivaldi-like sprints to enliven the uniformity of tone here, but there are some nice directorial touches that find an underlying dark humour and bring out the poignancy that is most definitely there to be found in the music and the situation.

For all its moralising solemnity, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno is still an astonishing work of great beauty, particularly if you are fortunate enough to hear it played live in a suitable venue with singers of quality and suitability for these roles. That is where the Buxton production succeeds brilliantly. The Buxton Opera House itself is also perfect for reduced orchestration, an ideal size for intimacy and acoustic fidelity. With Christian Curnyn conducting the period instrument orchestra of the Early Opera Company - as previously with their Acis and Galatea here in 2021 - it sounded marvellous, beautifully paced and measured, the music balanced with the singing, allowing you to hear and feel the playing of every instrument and get the meaning behind every sentiment.

Ultimately, the brilliance of the work is in the singing. These are gorgeous roles in a range of complementary voices and the casting was impressive, each of them given the opportunity to express their characters. I was particularly taken with the fullness of voice of Hilary Cronin as the Goth dressed Piacere/Pleasure. Hilary Summers' darkly seductive contralto made Disinganno/Disillusion an irresistible force for unwelcome truths, giving the role an otherworldly quality as well as making it feel real and something you could relate to. Which I suppose is the best you can do with a work like this, and it's clear that this is the intention of the director. Jorge Navarro Colorado as Tempo/Time was marvellous, blending beautifully with Summer's Disinganno in their Act II duet. There was some fine singing too from Anna Dennis as Belleza/Beauty, conveyed all the superficiality of the character as well as her deeper emotional response to the dawning - if never wholehearted - acceptance of her fate. 

Not a cheery work by any means, but as far as the Buxton International Festival's treatment of Handel's oratorio goes, this is one regard in which beauty and pleasure win out.

External links: Buxton International Festival