La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton Worldwide Competition

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero – Jon Stainsby, Camilla Seale – Vache Baroque at Buxton Worldwide Competition (Picture: Genevieve Girling)

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina; Camilla Seale, Jon Stainsby, Phoebe Rayner, Vache Baroque, director: Eloise Lally, music director: Jonathan Darbourne; Buxton Worldwide Competition at Pavilion Arts Centre

Dazzling instrumental taking part in with music that seduced in a trifle over-serious staging however with some effective particular person performances make this a notable revival of Francesca Caccini’s hardly ever staged gem

La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina by Francesca Caccini has the fame as the primary opera by a girl composer. Definitely, it’s Caccini’s solely surviving opera, written for the Medici court docket in Florence in 1625. It stays, nonetheless, on the perimeter of the repertoire although Brighton Early Music Competition (BREMF) staged it in 2015 [see my review]

Vache Baroque have been presenting their manufacturing of Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton Worldwide Competition within the Pavilion Arts Centre (seen 21 July 2026), directed by Eloise Lally (who directed Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore for St Paul’s Opera final yr, see my assessment) with Jonathan Darbourne as music director. Designs had been by Zahra Mansouri and lighting by Katie Kelly. Camilla Seale was Alcina, Jon Stainsby was Ruggiero, Phoebe Rayner was Melissa and Filippo Turkheimer was Nettuno with Betty Makharinsky, Harriet Burns, Alina Miyagi Magnell and Tom Kelly. Jonathan Darbourne directed from the harpsichord with an instrumental ensemble of three violins, viola da gamba, violone, three recorders, three sackbuts, theorbo and organ. The staging encompassed the entire stage with the instrumental ensemble unfold across the auditorium. Caccini’s full scoring doesn’t survive; no credit score was given within the programme so I presume that it’s to Darbourne we’ve got to thank for the actual orchestration right here.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero – Phoebe Rayner – Vache Baroque at Buxton Worldwide Competition (Picture: Genevieve Girling)

The plot, based mostly on Ariosto, is much like the one from Handel solely right here Ruggiero is rescued by one other sorceress, Melissa, and Alcina turns individuals into vegetation reasonably than animals. Eloise Lally’s idea of the plot took her a way from Caccini’s court docket leisure which was written for a visiting prince (and initially ended with a horse ballet). Right here magic was performed down. Lally defined her idea within the programme guide:

‘Set inside a world getting ready to collapse, this work explores the stress between preservation and reinvention. By means of the opposing forces of Alcina and Melissa, it questions who has the correct to form the long run: those that uphold current methods of energy, or those that search to dismantle and rebuild them fully.’

Katie Kelly’s lighting was definitely atmospheric nevertheless it did reasonably obscure among the particulars of the staging, making the plot a bit of opaque. The manufacturing labored finest when it forgot about explaining the mechanics of the plot and targeting private interactions and the sheer seductive energy of Caccini’s music.

The sound world was very a lot that of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) with log fluid recitative strains formed across the textual content, loads of instrumental ritornelli and dances, and an instrumental palate that used teams of devices in blocks. The outcome right here dazzled and engaged, and in Vache Baroque’s important efficiency made you marvel why this music is just not heard extra. Judging from viewers reactions it was Caccini’s rating, and Vache Baroque’s efficiency, that shocked and captivated.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero – Jon Stainsby, Camilla Seale & ensemble – Vache Baroque at Buxton Worldwide Competition (Picture: Genevieve Girling)

The manufacturing tried to keep away from the trope of Alcina as evil but seductive sorceress, although it must be stated that that’s what Caccini and her librettist would have anticipated. Because it was, you felt the idea was too earnest and lacked the required dramatic bravura at instances. Camilla Seale made a sympathetic, mellifluous Alcina, singing with well-modulated tones. Her Ruggiero, Jon Stainsby was suitably vivid and never too passive. A number of the strongest and most compelling scenes had been those between these two, particularly in direction of the tip when Ruggiero grew to become extra assured and Alcina extra determined, merely two individuals combating love and its varied facets.

Phoebe Rayner’s Melissa was the ‘good’ sorceress, although she spent a lot of the opera as Atlas. Rayner was agency and maybe a tad discreet, this Melissa was positively severe. Her closing wrestle with Searle’s Alcina introduced a pleasant factor of drama to proceedings.

The ensemble labored arduous, encompassing each Alcina’s retinue in addition to the individuals changed into vegetation by Alcina. Filippo Turkheimer was a vivid Nettuno within the prologue. His
efficiency compelling sufficient, not needing the additional bits of staging
introduced right here. Tom Kelly having impressed within the prologue, was equally participating as a fisherman on Alcina’s island, while Harriet Burns made a robust exhibiting as Oreste, Alcina’s oracle.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero – Jon Stainsby, Harriet Burns, Tom Kelly – Vache Baroque at Buxton Worldwide Competition (Picture: Genevieve Girling)

I reasonably echo one in all my colleagues who commented that the manufacturing labored finest when not taking itself too severely, and I keep in mind that BREMF’s manufacturing as being severe enjoyable. What made the occasion was the vivid but refined sound-world conjured by Jonathan Darbourne and his ensemble, and it made you remorse the lack of Caccini’s different music.