Performers make 'Alcina' enchanting

By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff, 10/20/2003

Handel's "Alcina" was one of the great successes of the composer's lifetime and has taken a central place in the revival of interest in Handel's operas in the last 50 years. Joan Sutherland took it around the world, and so has Renee Fleming. Curiously this Handelian town has never heard it until Martin Pearlman and Boston Baroque repaired that omission in a pair of performances that brought full houses to Jordan Hall last weekend. The performance was lively, well-played and well-sung, and it's hard to imagine how any three-hour stretch of music could be more varied and more spellbinding.

"Alcina" is one of four Handel opera's based on Ariosto's romantic epic, "Orlando Furioso." Alcina is a sorceress who turns her conquests into beasts and stones. Around her various romantic entanglements and confusions unfold, but all ends happily for everyone but Alcina. The story advances in an endless stream of elaborate arias, and there is a trio at the close.

These arias demand supersingers, and Pearlman had assembled several. Mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore was not flatteringly costumed, but she sang the role of the knight Ruggiero with luscious tone and dashing coloratura. To her fell the most famous aria of all, "Verdi prati," which requires a rapturous sensitivity she also supplied. Amanda Forsythe was captivating in a role originally performed by a 15-year-old boy soprano; she sang with spunk. The role assigned to Stephen Salters was minor, but his is a major talent; he dominated the stage the way he dominated his vocal line. Lauren Skuce, fresh from singing Morgana at the New York City Opera, triumphed again in the part here -- she's a vivacious stage personality with a creamy soprano voice propelled by technique and imagination. Morgana's Act I aria is such a showstopper that Sutherland simply claimed it for herself and Alcina; Skuce cascaded through it brilliantly.

Mezzo Christine Abraham has proved a strong performer in other roles (she was the redeemed heroine in Tod Machover's "Resurrection" at the Boston Lyric Opera), but she was miscast in a virtuoso Handel role; she was earnest rather than compelling. John Tessier was a capable but somewhat colorless tenor. Soprano Twyla Robinson has a lot to bring to Alcina -- a dominating presence, a fantastic voice, large and vibrant, and a fearless attack. But arias meant to display the contrasting capabilities of the singer came out sounding pretty much the same, and all loud.

The semi-staging by Jennifer Griesbach clarified the musical structure and the plot; she even managed the magical denouement when the stones come back to life very well. But she didn't do much to bring the characters to life, and both Lattimore and Abraham indulged in too many sitcom double takes. "Verdi prati" was very badly staged -- Ruggiero regrets that the enchantments of the island will vanish, but it looked as if he was telling his beloved that her beauty would fade, and she didn't seem to mind.

Pearlman conducted with taste, style, and energy, and the Boston Baroque orchestra sounded splendid. Rightfully the continuo players -- Sarah Freiberg Ellison (cello), Lucas Harris (lute) and Peter Sykes (harpsichord) -- took bows along with the principals.