Handel 1730 Partenope HWV 27 Ivor Bolton

George Frideric Handel [Georg Friedrich Händel]
Partenope Opera 1730, HWV 27
Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro Real Madrid, conducted by Ivor Bolton
Partenope - Brenda Rae, Arsace - Iestyn Davies, Rosmira - Teresa Iervolino,
Armindo - Anthony Roth Costanzo, Emilio - Jeremy Ovenden, Ormonte - Nikolay Borchev

[@IgorSurikov-cl2tm]

A brilliant opera, but the staging... Hmmmm, Handel as an opera verista composer. Why obligatory to modernize all? We want to see, and not only to hear, that magnificent Baroque era, we are saturated with our prosaic present.

[@campbellmays9900]

This wasn’t much of an update - it looks like its set in 1920s/1930s Hollywood

[@campbellmays9900]

make that 1930s/1940s Hollywood

[@Walter50]

The problem with this prodoction is not so much the setting as the directors compulsive urge to let the singers do irrelevant things while singing, a defect that disfigures the majority of the Handel operas I have attended alas.