HANDEL : ENCHANTED ISLAND

 Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 26th of February 2012 at 3.03 - 6.35 pm

GENESIS
SYMPOSIUM
SYNOPSIS
REVIEW 
REVIEW
CRITIQUE
PICTURES 
SOURCES

Metropolitan Opera Season
Twenty-three operas from New York's Metropolitan Opera House
(8) HANDEL/RAMEAU/VIVALDI:  
The Enchanted Island, an opera in two acts 
Prospero....................... David Daniels
Sycorax........................ Joyce DiDonato
Ariel.............................. Danielle de Niese
Caliban......................... Luca Pisaroni
Neptune........................ Plácido Domingo
Miranda........................ Lisette Oropesa
Ferdinand...................... Anthony Roth Costanzo
Helena.......................... Layla Claire
Hermia.......................... Elizabeth DeShong
Demetrius...................... Paul Appleby
Lysander....................... Elliot Madore
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/William Christie 

Combining music of the Baroque masters with a story based on two Shakespeare plays in a new libretto by Jeremy Sams, The Enchanted Island is a pastiche opera, in which the lovers from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream are shipwrecked on Prospero's island from The Tempest. Inspired by the musical pastiches and masques of the 18th century, the work is constructed from arias and ensembles from operas and oratorios by Handel (predominantly), Vivaldi, and Rameau; also Campra, Purcell, Ferrandini, and Rebel.

A libretto is not available, but a synopsis is provided, and for the inquisitive connoisseur the provenances for each of the fourty-four pieces in the pasticcio, counting the overture and not including the missing 32, are listed. Naturally,

It remains to be seen whether this new baby will move beyond its cradle at the Met, and pop up in other places.