The Revisionist Handel Comic Opera Returns!

Handel's comedic cross-dressing opera sees the pursuit of one woman by four suitors, ironically one of them being a woman herself! This 2009 Olivier Award-winning production by revisionist opera director Christopher Alden returns to the ENO for the 2025 season at the London Coliseum for its second revival, with the action brought forward to the Surrealist 1920s. Christian Curnyn conducts, with Alden once again helming the production and Nardus Williams, winner of the Rising Talent at the 2022 International Opera Awards, singing the titular role.

What is it about?

With the action brought forward from Ancient Greece to 1920s Paris, the Queen Partenope is now re-imagined as a successful salon owner, who is wooed by three different suitors. One of these suitors, Arsace jilted his lover Rosmira in order to pursue the glamorous Parisian; however, Rosmira isn't determined to lose him to another woman that easily. So in a flash of inspiration, she disguises herself as a man, and joins the pursuit of Partenope alongside her former lover and two others - just so she can win him back. Of course, with another horse in the race, affairs of the heart are just about to get that more complicated.....