Handel’s Susanna from Opera North & Phoenix Dance Theatre with Anna Dennis & James Corridor

Handel: Susanna – Anna Dennis – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Picture: Tristram Kenton)

Handel: Susanna; Anna Dennis, James Corridor, Matthew Brook, Claire Lees, Colin Judson, Karl Haml, Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre, director: Olivia Fuchs, choreographer: Marcus Jarrell Willis, conductor: Johanna Soller; Opera North at Theatre Royal Nottingham
Reviewed 21 November 2025

Handel’s oratorio was a exceptional dance drama, integrating opera and motion with a efficiency of exceptional targeted depth from Anna Dennis within the title function

Dance has been an integral a part of opera because the early Baroque, although fairly how the 2 have built-in has assorted over time and place. The French Baroque type of virtually synthesis not being adopted in different nations, and the UK nonetheless appears cautious of the operas of Lully and Rameau, unwilling or unable to mix motion and singing in an expressive means.

In France, because the nineteenth century progressed the mixing was extra formalised much less seamless while in Italy opera was not devoid of dance as evenings usually contained ballets alongside the opera. This separation has reasonably continued. A lot in order that productions just like the Royal Opera’s current efficiency of Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes fortunately eliminated the ballet [see my review] while Wexford Pageant Opera’s current manufacturing of Verdi’s Le Trouvère offered a uncommon outing for Verdi’s ballet music for the opera. [see my review]

Fashionable occasions have seen dance integrated into drama in works like Britten’s Demise in Venice however you might be simply as more likely to see music subservient to bop as in Mark Morris’ model of Handel’s L’Allegro. In 2024, Olivia Fuchs directed Britten’s Demise in Venice at Welsh Nationwide Opera in a manufacturing that includes an progressive collaboration with NoFitState circus, nearly redefining the drama in that opera. [see my review]

Handel: Susanna – Anna Dennis, James Corridor with Yasmina Patel and Teige Bisnought from Phoenix Dance Theatre – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Picture: Tristram Kenton)

So, Opera North‘s determination to resume its collaboration with Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre through a manufacturing of Handel’s Susanna, directed by Olivia Fuchs was an intriguing prospect. We caught the ultimate efficiency of the tour, on the Theatre Royal, Nottingham on Friday 21 November 2025. The opera was directed by Olivia Fuchs, carried out by Johanna Soller with designs by Zahra Mansouri. Choreography was by Marcus Jarrell Willis, creative director of Phoenix Dance Theatre. 

James Corridor was Joacim and Anna Dennis was Susanna with Matthew Brook as Chelsias, Colin Judson and Karl Huml because the Elders, Amy Freston as Susanna’s attendant, Claire Lees as Daniel and Dean Robinson as Choose. There have been seven dancers (an extra two had been sadly sick) who carried out alongside the soloists and refrain. The orchestra featured the fashionable devices of the Orchestra of Opera North together with theorbo and two harpsichords (one performed by Johanna Soller).

The costumes had been fashionable however in largely muted colors and the set featured a gantry on the rear offering a two-level house which meant dance and singing may function concurrently but individually. Act Two featured translucent glass screens and a shower, however the design strategy was admirably uncluttered.

At occasions the dancers offered doubles to the singers. Throughout Act One’s lengthy celebration of the love between Joacim (James Corridor) and Susanna (Anna Dennis) there was a dance element too. Somewhat than distracting, it helped to ascertain the ravishing pastoral ambiance. The opera opened with a scene the place refrain and dancers mingled: stationary at first, then some moved and a few sang to placing impact.

Fortunately this was not a danced oratorio. Music, drama, singing and dance intermingled, but Olivia Fuchs and Marcus Jarrell Willis knew when to depart effectively alone. The top of Act Two encompasses a highly effective refrain that was offered with out dance, however not missing in motion. All through the staging strains had been blurred, the refrain members shifting (together with Peter Sellers-like hand gestures), and Anna Dennis’s expressive efficiency shading into motion too.

Handel: Susanna – Anna Dennis, with Tony Polo and Aaron Chaplin from Phoenix Dance Theatre – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Picture: Tristram Kenton)

Susanna can generally appear a wierd combine of significant and lighter parts with the large-scale choruses offering a problem to administrators. The manufacturing’s focus was very a lot on the determine of Susanna and her highly effective integrity. Even when utterly cornered, Anna Dennis radiated intelligence and integrity, and on the opening of Act Three a simmering anger too. Dennis’s efficiency was mesmerising. We noticed her within the function earlier this 12 months with the Dunedin Consort [see my review], however this staging appeared so as to add one other layer to her efficiency. Even when nonetheless or silent she blazed, and this Susanna was an actual focus. She was pleasant within the ‘Crystal Streams’ aria, sung in her tub. Then her interplay with the Elders (Colin Judson and Karl Huml) was all outrage. Because the drama developed, her targeted depth introduced out the standard of Handel’s music.

The character of Joacim can appear a little bit of an add-on to the drama. He duets with Susanna in Act One, however then absent from dwelling, he merely opens and closes Act Two and solely returns on the finish of Act Three after the drama is over. Right here Olivia Fuchs managed to make James Corridor’s Joacim appear integral to the drama, helped by Corridor’s exceptional efficiency. In Joacim’s closing aria on the finish of Act Two, when he has realized of Susanna’s destiny, Corridor was each searing in his depth and remarkably bodily; his presence was overwhelming and also you sense that this mattered. When Joacim lastly appeared in the direction of the top of Act Three, Corridor made him appear nearly approaching bodily collapse.

While the opera did finish fortunately, this happiness was exhausting received. Fuchs didn’t present her characters with a straightforward resolution, the staging of Joacim’s return and the scenes with Susanna was masterly as the 2 struggled to realize some form of equilibrium. This made the ultimate scenes and their final reconciliation all of the extra shifting.

There was definitely nothing comedian about Colin Judson and Karl Huml’s performances because the Elders. Each had been middle-aged, each entitled, the parallels had been apparent but this was executed with out urgent. And the ultimate scenes included Anna Dennis enacting Susanna’s humiliation on them!

Handel: Susanna – Colin Judson, Anna Dennis, Karl Huml – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Picture: Tristram Kenton)

Matthew Brook’s Chelsias was all good nature and bonhomie. Brook introduced out the musicality of the function, and I reasonably loved the way in which his eruption into proceedings on the finish of Act Three was considerably tone deaf; neither Corridor’s Joacim nor Dennis’s Susanna had been fairly prepared.

Claire Lees’ Daniel was offered as vibrant, clever and different. It wasn’t simply Daniel’s otherness when it got here to gender fluidity, however they had been the primary splash of vivid color all night. Lees was splendidly participating, notably the way in which she drew Dennis’s Susanna and Corridor’s Joacim collectively after Susanna appeared to get too targeted on Daniel! Amy Freston offered fashionable assist as Susanna’s attendant in Act Two, while Dean Robinson was the dignified choose on the finish of Act Three.

The refrain was on terrific kind. Not solely had been a number of roles performed by refrain members (Amy Freston, Clare Lees, Dean Robinson) however the refrain, motion and dance appeared to be remarkably built-in. There have been not often any moments the place you felt the efficiency cut up into separate singing and dancing. By way of Handelian oratorio, the efficiency was greater than creditable too. This can be a refrain touring Handel and Puccini, but chameleon-like there was no bleed over.

Equally the orchestra was on fashionable kind. Sure, these had been clearly fashionable devices (barring the continuo devices) however the sound world was effectively into the traditionally knowledgeable territory. There have been few moments when nineteenth or twentieth century over-romanticism crept in. Johanna Soller drew wonderful performances from all involved. Her tempos appeared pure, and there was little sense that the dance factor was taking priority as can generally occur.

Handel: Susanna – Dylan Springer held aloft by Tony Polo, Teige Bisnought, Aaron Chaplin and Hannah McGlashon of Phoenix Dance Theatre – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Picture: Tristram Kenton)

The entire night flowed effectively, and an oratorio that may generally battle to discover a joyful medium between massive musical scale and home drama appeared to metamorphose into a really satisfying dance drama. I by no means felt that Willis’s choreography pulled focus from the singers, and infrequently it contributed even when the dancers had been within the background. Clearly this staging was an experiment, and have to be counted a really actual success.