An enchanted evening

Warwick Thompson|Metro10 April 2012

The exposition of Handel's 1733 opera Orlando is very simple. The knight errant Orlando is in love with Angelica, but goes mad when she rejects him. And Angelica's current squeeze, Medoro, gets tangled up with a frisky shepherdess called Dorinda.

Add in ravishing melodies, bold and surprising harmonic twists, gorgeous period instrument playing from the Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment, and it should all make for a couple of hours of baroque enchantment. And it does.

Only by the time those hours have been stretched to nearly four and the plot hasn't budged an inch, you might never want to see another knight or shepherdess again.

It's certainly not the fault of the singers. Alice Coote (Orlando) has a rich, chocolatey mezzo which she uses with supreme artistry. Camilla Tilling creates a memorable comic portrait. And Barbara Bonney, baritone Jonathan Lemalu and countertenor Bejun Mehta all sound great. But none of this disguises the length.

The Royal Opera: Orlando

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