The landscape of enchantress Alcina’s island is littered—literally—with the remnants of past love affairs. One of Handel’s most gorgeous operas asks whether true love renders us powerless or sets us free.

Approximate running time: 3 hours
Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Free Inside the Opera talk one hour before curtain.

When the sorceress Alcina tires of her lovers, she turns them into animals and trees, literally littering her island with the remnants of past love affairs.

Alcina is one of Handel’s three “magical” operas, all of which were based on stories from Ariosto’s Orlando furioso—a 16th century poem with many fantastical elements, including a trip to the moon and an array of creatures including the orc (a humanoid giant also found in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings) and the hippogriff (the combination of a horse, an eagle, and a lion).

This opera is an exploration of human love in all its guises—passionate physical attraction between Alcina and the men she seduces, abiding mature affection between Bradamante and the husband she has come to rescue, the adolescent fascination Alcina’s sister has for the newly arrived stranger on the island, the filial devotion the young Oberto displays in searching for his father, and the unhealthy obsession the General Oronte has for the woman he’s charged to protect. Messy, fascinating, and the impetus for some of the most stunningly beautiful vocal music of the Baroque era.