Riccardo Novaro as Zoroastro in Orlando | Credit: Thomas Amouroux

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Orlando Furioso – the epic poem on which Handel’s Orlando is based, has been the inspiration for many works of art in the Rococo and Romantic periods. Though a visually inspiring tale for many creatives, the contemporary feeling is that Orlando lends itself well to a concert performance or semi-staging. But trees and natural imagery underpin the libretto of this opera seria. It was a creative decision by director Jeanne Desoubeaux to stage the opera in a 21st century art gallery or museum space, with wide windows looking out onto trees and watercolour skies.

Zoroastro – the pleasant sounding baritone Riccardo Novaro – tuts, poses and shoo’s children around the gallery as they cause mayhem. The vibrancy of the costumes is immediately compelling, with the children complete with school trip high-vis jackets. It’s not immediately clear what Zoroastro’s role is, beyond chief busybody and well-dressed gallery steward. His wizardry exposes itself as he holds something of a curse over the children and throws his hands towards them in a Harry Potter-esque vigour.

The 100 minute-long first half of Handel’s work was crammed full with choreography (Rodolphe Fouillot), interfering children and suggestions of polyamory in the end of Act 1’s trio ‘Consolati o bella’. Though the staging and costumes (Alex Costantino) held great attention to detail, much of the direction bordered on unclear and felt cluttered. Not helped, it must be said, by the length and virtuosity of Handel’s score, which added to the sensory overwhelm.

There is a fine line to tread before over-doing these opera seria from 18th Century London. The challenging of gender roles and heteronormativity with an all-female cast was effective, though the ‘happy tragedy’ element to the romance didn’t come through strongly enough, largely due to the over-involvement of children and lack of space for reflection or solitude.

Katarina Bradić as Orlando with Siobhan Stagg as Angelica | Credit: Thomas Amouroux​

Act 3 gave a clever glimpse into Orlando’s delusion with a disappearance of the gallery and emergence of a martian landscape in the vibrant style, almost reminiscent of a 21st Century children’s TV programme, complete with psychedelic, florescent creatures. There were also moments of effective comedy, with mimicking of Zoroastro’s pomposity from the children and a blurring of gender lines with a new colour palette and design of the lovers’ costumes.

Though Katarina Bradić playing Orlando was suffering due to illness, she still appeared onstage, fighting it out as a compelling and tormented Orlando in his score of virtuous arias. Angelica was a vocally captivating Siobhan Stagg who outsold some other cast members with her level of projection and vocal sparkle. Elizabeth DeShong as Medoro, for whom Angelica turns her head from Orlando, also showed a strong mezzo sound and seamless ability to blend and uplift in duets. ‘Se il cor mai ti dirà’ in Act 1 with Giulia Semenzato as Dorinda held particular tenderness.

Christophe Rousset and his Les Talens Lyriques were undoubtedly the evening's highlight. Rousset moves subtly with his orchestra and doesn’t exert any more energy than he needs to. His is a mastery of subtlety and trust, which gave performers the ultimate freedom. A forensic basso continuo, similarly, gave a feather bed for singers during their complex recitatives.  

Until 2 February. chatelet.com/en/programmation/24-25/orlando/