There are worse places to find yourself trapped than Club Amnesia. Here, Alcina – performance artist extraordinaire – captivates the men who swarm around her, bending their minds, and reality, to her will. But when she meets Ruggiero, her heart finally softens. Then Ruggiero’s fiancée – disguised as a man to rescue her lost lover – arrives, and a clash of head and heart threatens to shatter the magic, hedonism, and fantasy of Alcina’s illusions.

Olivia Fuchs, director of 2025’s five-star The Makropulos Affair, transports Handel’s romantic fantasy to the vibrant, flamboyant, all-intoxicating club scene, joyfully toying with opera’s power and gender dynamics. Colourful designs by Yannis Thavoris (Marx in London! 2024) and lighting by Jake Wiltshire (Albert Herring 2024) bring this story of love, imagination, transformation, and human frailty to life.

Alcina contains some of Handel’s finest arias, from the aching ‘Verdi prati’ to the scintillating ‘Tornami a vagheggiar’. Renowned conductor Dmitri Jurowski is on the podium, and the cast includes Madeline Boreham, making her hotly anticipated Company debut in the title role; 2026/27 Emerging Artists Charlotte Clapperton, Charlotte Jane Kennedy, and Luvo Maranti; and Emerging Artist alumni Chloe Harris and Edward Jowle (both The Marriage of Figaro 2026).

Kindly supported by The Scottish Opera Syndicate
Part of Scottish Opera's 2026/27 Season
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