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Arianna
Singing and slaying … Arianna in Creta at the Britten theatre. Photograph: Chris Christodoulou
Singing and slaying … Arianna in Creta at the Britten theatre. Photograph: Chris Christodoulou

Arianna in Creta – review

This article is more than 10 years old
Britten theatre, London
This opera's characters and drama are far from convincing, but it was beautifully performed at the London Handel festival

This year's London Handel festival opens with a new production of Arianna in Creta, a mythological drama dating from 1734, by Selina Cadell. Popular in Handel's lifetime, it has found less favour since. The narrative revolves around Theseus's slaying of the Minotaur and the hero's burgeoning relationship with Ariadne. The emphasis falls less, however, on ridding Crete of its present violence than on an erotic tangle that develops when Arianna becomes suspicious that Teseo has the hots for the Minotaur's intended victim, Carilda, who is also desired by the Athenian Alceste and the Cretan Tauride. The dramaturgy has been castigated as weak, but the real problem is that the characters, Arianna apart, are too single-minded in their motivation to be fully rounded.

Cadell's staging opens with the opera's tutelary deities, Cupid (actor Elliott Ross) and Somnus (bass-baritone Matthew Buswell), presenting a puppet show that gives us the background to the narrative, in which they subsequently intervene. It's unfussy and clear, if a bit static. Though the Minotaur's labyrinth, when we reach it, is none too convincing.

Graciously conducted by Laurence Cummings, it sounds good. The first of two casts boasts a superb Teseo and Arianna in Tai Oney and Soraya Mafi: he flings coloratura around like weaponry; she is all crystalline tone and spine-tingling high notes. Lovestruck Alceste's numbers are meltingly delivered by Anna Rajah. As Tauride, Kezia Bienek was suffering from sinusitis, but needn't have apologised. Carilda lies a bit low for Amy Williamson, though there's no doubting the exceptional quality of her voice. The London Handel festival has done this work proud.

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