★★★★★
It’s hard to ignore the huge decorated gold pipes of Birmingham Town Hall’s organ, a resplendent 19th-century instrument that takes centre-stage, suggesting vast choirs and rumbling bass notes. Quite the opposite from the refined, small-scale forces needed for Handel’s Orlando, his inventive, impactful 1733 opera about love and glory, with some magic thrown in. It was performed exquisitely by Harry Bicket, the English Concert and a quintet of singers that it would be hard to surpass.
In this surtitled concert performance, which involved some gesture and staged movements, our attention was focused on states of human emotion: unrequited love, requited love, jealousy, rage and madness. I almost forgot the sorcery and spells.
How Handel uses the orchestra to convey his characters’ innermost feelings becomes even clearer in concert, especially when played with the cleanly etched lines, supple grace and invigorating energy of the English Concert, directed from the harpsichord by Bicket. And Handel’s music also wonderfully conjures up the pastoral setting.
Iestyn Davies took the title role with ease and effortless style and his slow Sleep Aria, accompanied by two dusky violas, theorbo and cello, was spellbindingly beautiful. Erin Morley’s velvety soprano and lively expressions made her a warm, complex Queen Angelica, adored by Orlando but in love with Medoro, a role that needs the richness and depth given by mezzo Sasha Cooke. As the powerful magician Zoroastro, Kyle Ketelsen’s burnished bass-baritone was the ideal foundation for this group of well-contrasted voices.
At the emotional heart of this performance was the unlucky-in-love shepherdess Dorinda, sung with fresh, sweet lightness by Carolyn Sampson. Her Act II Nightingale Song, with solo violin as songbird, was a standout moment, only to be topped by her dazzling Amor è qual vento in Act III, in which she sings of the anguish of love.