FULL La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (Caccini) New Britain CT 2021
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina
- Composer: Caccini Francesca
- Libretto: Ferdinando Saracinelli Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: New Britain, Trinity-On-Main, Connecticut Lyrical Opera
- Recorded: November 5, 2021
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Rebecca Batista deAlmeida, Madison Marie McIntosh, Maria Margiolakou, Heather O’Connor, Allison Waggener, Daniel Kamalic, Samuel Bowen
- Conductor: Adrian Sylveen
- Orchestra: Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
- Chorus Master: Dara Blackstone
- Stage Director: Alan Mann
- Costume Designer:
- Lighting Designer: Joe Maturano
Information about the Recording
- Published by: ctvirtuosiorchestra
- Date Published: 2021
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Composed by Francesca Caccini in 1625, “La liberazione di Ruggiero dalla’isola d’Alcina”, the first Italian opera to be presented in another country, is a marvelous musical action-romance with intriguing characters and a fascinating scenario. The opera was commissioned by Florence’s Regent Archduchess, Maria Magdalena of Austria. It was published under her auspices for the state occasion of the visit to Carnival by a Polish prince, Wladislas Sigismund. It celebrates his recent victory over the Turks (symbolized in the opera by the wicked sorceress Alcina). The first performance was in Florence in the Villa Poggia Imperiale on 3 February 1625, and it was revived in Warsaw in 1628. Part daring action rescue and part mystic saga, “La liberazione di Ruggerio dalla’isola d’Alcina” tells the tale of a female officer, Bradamante, serving in the occupying forces in the Middle East, who learns that her Muslim boyfriend, also an officer in her battalion, has been kidnapped by a female cult leader, known as a seductive enchantress. Unable to leave her post, her BFF, Melissa, herself a young sorceress, undertakes the mission to liberate him. To approach Ruggiero in acceptable and authoritative fashion, and reveal to him Alcina’s true nature, she takes on the appearance of Atlas, the mentor who had lovingly brought up Ruggiero. Besotted by the magic charms of his beautiful captor and drugged into submission, he remains her captive, surrounded by the living reminders of her discarded lovers, male and female. The rescue will involve subterfuge, duplicity, disguises, magic, and a final face-to-face fight between the two female adversaries. Finally, the “filthy sorceress” is vanquished, her cohorts of monsters and maidens dispersed, and the heroes prepare to return home safely. As the opera closes, all performers join together to sing the praises of loyalty and devotion. Composer Francesca Caccini was the first woman to compose an opera and also the most well-paid musician at the height of her career in the 1620s. A masterful musician, she played guitar, lute, harp, and keyboard. She was also a poet and wrote in both Italian and Latin.“La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina”, based on “Orlando furioso” – a romantic epic by 16th century poet Lodovico Ariosto, is one of only a few of Caccini’s works that is still available today.