As the hippogriff begins to eat the leaves of a myrtle bush, Ruggiero is startled to hear the bush begin to speak.
•
The background of the opera comes from the poem Orlando Furioso. The heroic knight Ruggiero is destined to a short but glorious life, and a benevolent magician is always whisking him away from the arms of his fiancée, Bradamante.
She appeared in several of his productions including the role of Morgana in the world premier of Alcina (1735) and in the world premiers of the oratorios Alexander’s Feast (1736) and Saul (1739).
Alcina |
The next year he became a conductor of George Frideric Handel's Alcina which was performed at the Festspiele Balver Höhle and the same year worked as a conductor for operas such as Samson and Delilah and Hercules.
Her season 2011-2012 was highlighted by Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Staatsoper Berlin under the baton of Marc Minkowski, Alcina (Bradamante) at the Lausanne Opera under the baton of Ottavio Dantone and Rinaldo (title role) in Reggio Emilia and Ferrara.
Later NYCO assignments included Adalgisa in Norma, Bradamante in Alcina, Smeton in Anna Bolena, and leading roles in the Central Park trilogy (which consists of Deborah Drattell and Wendy Wasserstein's The Festival of Regrets, Michael Torke and A.R. Gurney's Strawberry Fields, and Robert Beaser and Terrence McNally's The Food of Love).
In the romance of Il Guerrin Meschino, written by Andrea da Barberino about 1410, the central episode of the sixth part (Canto V) contains the "prodigious adventures" of Guerrino with this enchantress, the "Fata" Alcina, whom he seeks out, against all advice.