Opera review: Partenope - English National Opera

Despite having a ludicrous plot, this is a glorious evening's entertainment.

The entire cast comprises six people, one of whom is Partenope, legendary Queen of Naples, three of the others are in love with her and one is just pretending to be in love with her.

This last is a woman dressed as a man, who has been jilted by one of Partenope's suitors and isn't sure whether she wants to get him back or kill him. And one of the men is sung by a woman, so basically it is all very confusing. 

The opera itself has a great deal of Handel's gloriously fast and intricate music, but very little action.

Charisopher Alden magnificently makes up for this with designs that are inspired by 1920s Parisian surrealism matched by a great deal of equally surreal humour and some delightfully funny dance steps that add to the incongruity.

There are many passages which consist of little more than the singer coming to centre stage and belting out another glorious Handel aria, but Alden always introduces a comical element to give us something to look at and laugh at.

Sometimes, his ideas don't really work (pulling a rabbit from a top hat, for example, was far too predictable), but taken as a whole, they add a wonderful air of lunacy to the opera. 

Sarah Tynan sang gloriously and acted in suitably imperious but sexy style in the title role, while Robert Murray, James Laing and Patricia Bardon made a splendid comic trio of suitors.

The last of those, you may have noticed, is a female playing a male role, but that was matched by Stephanie Windsor-Lewis delightfully playing a woman pretending to be a man.

The final member of the cast was Matthew Durkan as Ormonte, who was the only person not in love with, or pretending to be in love with Partenope.

It was not quite clear what his function was as a servant of the Queen, but he did it very funnily.

In fact, the entire cast performed as a very fine comic ensemble, in a sort of witty Fry and Laurie style, and their antics provided another level of incongruity when accompanied by Handel's  delightfully refined music which was conducted in fine style by the Handel expert Christian Curnyn.