Partenope

BY GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL

Love is a battlefield in Christopher Alden’s Olivier Awardwinning production of Partenope, a laugh-out-loud comedy of romance and rejection, set to some of George Frideric Handel’s most masterful music.

Partenope is the queen of the Paris social scene, her salon a magnet for the era’s surrealist artists. But they’re not just interested in cocktails and conversation. They’re interested in winning her hand in marriage. One suitor is a wide-eyed romantic. Another, a debonair playboy. A third, a trigger-happy photographer. And then there’s the mustachioed mystery suitor, who may be more than he—or she—appears. Love takes unexpected twists in this Dadaist romp.

Countertenors Carlo Vistoli and Nicholas Tamagna, mezzosoprano Daniela Mack, and tenor Alek Shrader compete to earn the affections of Julie Fuchs in her Company debut as the queen bee, Partenope. A master of the Baroque repertoire, Christopher Moulds returns to the podium to lead Handel’s virtuosic score, a brisk confection full of high-flying virtuosity and emotionally stirring arias.

Roaring Twenties. Raging Love.

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