(...) And especially the Handel Festival Orchestra (as part of the Staatskapelle Halle) with its historical instruments has long since ceased to hide behind any special ensemble of the international baroque scene. The new head of the formation, Bernhard Forck, brought his experience in the early music scene to the opening premiere in a delightful way, and the ensemble of protagonists shone above all with the two outstanding countertenors. Owen Willetts was convincing as the emotionally suffering title character Orlando, almost hopelessly addicted to madness out of disappointed love, and Dmitry Egorov as his rival Medoro, who simply has the better cards with Angelica, whom they both love, and keeps the upper hand. The staff is completed by the shepherdess Droinda and the magician who leads through the play like a tour guide. In addition to the musical level, this time there is also a scenic daring that is somewhat overdue in Halle. Handel's variant of the innumerable operas of Ariosto's "Orlando" epic is something like a relationship tragedy of disappointed love. It offers sorcery, suspended animation, madness and a crowbarred lieto fine and convinces above all by its arios poetry. The fact that Nicola Hümpel, Oliver Proske and their Berlin theater group Nico & the Navigators were chosen for the production clearly belongs on the credit side of the festival. In front of an abstract projection semicircle, they play around the plot with two performers rather associatively than creating the illusion of a knight's tale. The stylized stage aesthetic is reminiscent of a rather cheerfully playful Roberto Wilson. In any case, the lightness of the comments, some witty and some illustrative, productively seizes on the leaps in the plot of this seria rather than clashing with them. The premiere audience was willing to go along with this cautious, but clear, aesthetic opening. Von Corinne Hundelby übersetzt: (...) The fact that the production was put in the hands of Nicola Hümpel, Oliver Proske and their Berlin-based independent theatre group Nico & the Navigators is without a doubt to the festival's credit. With an abstract projected semicircle as a backdrop, they use two performers to play around rather associatively with the plot, rather than attempting to generate the illusion of a knight's tale. The stylised stage design is reminiscent of a playful Roberto Wilson. The lightness of the part-humorous, part-illustrative commentary aids the progression of the storyline rather than conflicting with it. The audience present at the premiere was certainly ready to go along with this careful yet clear and aesthetic opening performance.

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