Alcina review – Opera North clear clutter but there’s minimal magic on this enchanted isle

Grand theatre, Leeds
Handel’s opera is full of glorious music but its improbable plot makes it difficult to stage; Tim Albery’s intelligent production only fitfully succeeds

Few will challenge Alcina’s claims to contain some of the finest vocal writing that even Handel ever penned. The problem is with staging it. Under the skin, Alcina engages with serious stuff – desire, betrayal, rejection and trust. But the plot – an island enchantress battles to retain power over her lovers – is wrapped in artifice and improbability. Many productions fall short. Tim Albery’s intelligent staging for Opera North – the first of several Alcinas in the UK over the coming months – is, ultimately, another of them.

Albery’s achievement is to have cleared enough of Alcina’s clutter to ensure focus on the work’s emotional core. The score is heavily cut, reshaped into two acts, not three. Hannah Clark’s perky designs, stripped back and sustainable, consist of 1960s upholstered chairs and a bearskin rug. Costumes are contemporary, save the occasional sword and breastplate. Ian Galloway’s video backdrop initially suggests an island of dreams but morphs into an oppressive heart of darkness jungle.

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