Die Insel Alcina by Gazzaniga, Ab (2022/2022), Unter der Regie von Christoph von Bernuth, Dirigat Werner Ehrhardt, Rokokotheater, Schwetzingen, Deutschland

A Frenchman, an Englishman, an Italian, a Spaniard and later also a German are stranded in a lonely area. As it turns out to her amazement, it is the island of Alcina: the fairy who charms all men, who should have been dead for 800 years - but now presents herself to her guests as ageless and seductively beautiful. In the conflict between reason and temptation, the island visitors get into great (love) turbulence and can only leave the island again after they have literally exposed Alcina's magic as an "old braid". In his rich parody, librettist Giovanni Bertati describes how an old myth, which has often found expression in literature and on the (opera) stage, is being taken ad absurdum by the enlightened modern age. In doing so, he also plays with a number of national clichés, right down to the linguistic peculiarities of the individual characters. From this steep template, Giuseppe Gazzaniga created a truly comic opera, which premiered in Venice in 1772 and found its way to the Schwetzingen theater just a year later. WhenL'Isola d'Alcina is now - 250 years later - on the program, shows that the opera itself has hardly aged and still humorously raises contemporary questions.