The extreme psychological approach weakened the dramaturgy: Handel's Ariodante returns to Covent Garden in new production by Jetske Mijnssen

Handel: Ariodante - Royal Opera House (Photo: Bill Knight/RBO)

Handel's Ariodante; Jacquelyn Stucker, Emily D'Angelo, Christophe Dumaux, Elen Villalon, Ed Lyon, Peter Kellner, director: Jetske Mijnssen, conductor: Stefano Montanari; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Reviewed 19 December 2025

Handel's later masterpiece returns to Covent Garden for the first time since its premiere in a modern psychological production that is full of musical riches but ultimately fails to move

Handel's Ariodante was the first new opera he composed for the theatre at Covent Garden, Handel's long reign at the King's Theatre having come to an end. For modern audiences it is a surprisingly accessible piece with no satirical comedy and no lofty heroics. There is also no subplot, all the characters are involved in the action, and the story is told in a remarkably direct way. It is thus rather surprising that the opera is a relative rarity on UK stages. The Royal Academy of Music staged it in 2023 [see my review] and the Royal College of Music in 2016 [see my review], and there have been concert performances from Joyce DiDonato and Il complesso barocco in 2011 [see my review], Alice Coote and the English Concert in 2017 [see our review] and at Covent Garden in 2020 with Paula Murrihy [see my review].

Harry Fehr staged it for Scottish Opera in 2016 (with Caitlin Hulcup) and David Alden famously staged it at English National Opera in 1993 with occasional revivals, the production also shared with Welsh National Opera, and English Touring Opera did stage it. But Covent Garden's recent new production of Ariodante represented a rare chance to experience the work staged by a professional company.

Jetske Mijnssen's production is a co-production with Opera National du Rhin (where it has already appeared in 2024, see review) and Opera de Lausanne. We caught the performance on Friday 19 December 2025 at the Royal Opera House conducted by Stefano Montanari with Emily D'Angelo as Ariodante [last seen as Ruggiero in Alcina here in 2022, see my review], Jacquelyn Stucker as Ginevra [last seen performing Handel with David Bates and La Nuova Musica at Wigmore Hall this year, see my review], Christophe Dumaux as Polinesso [last seen as Handel's Giulio Cesare in Salzburg this year, see my review], Elena Villalon as Dalinda, Ed Lyon as Lurcanio, Peter Kellner as the King of Scotland and Emyr Lloyd Jones as Odoardo. Set design was by Etienne Pluss with costumes by Uta Meenen.

Handel: Ariodante - Ed Lyon, Christophe Dumaux, Peter Kellner, Emyr Lloyd Jones - Royal Opera House (Photo: Bill Knight/RBO)

The setting was modern day, with Act One taking place in a classical style interior with plenty of formality and lots of servants. As the drama unfolded in the subsequent acts, the set opened up to become somewhat more abstract. But in addition to this updating, Mijnssen had made a number of subtle changes to the work's dramaturgy that did not always strengthen Handel's original.

Dalinda (Elen Villalon) was now the sister of Ginevra (Jacquelyn Stucker) meaning that there was no sense of class pressure in her relationship with Polinesso (Christophe Dumaux). In the original, Dalinda is the maid and thus more easily oppressed by aristocratic Polinesso. This Dalinda is thus more complicit. In Act One, Mijnssen abandoned any thought of the pastoral from the original and created a set of characters who seemed straight out of Hello Magazine. All, including Ginevra and Ariodante (Emily D'Angelo), were unpleasant; mistreating the servants was the order of the day. And there were a lot of servants, you felt that Mijnssen had seen ENO's famous production of Xerxes and thought serried ranks of servants a good idea, but here they did not have the satirical edge of Nicholas Hynter's original.

The King of Scotland (Peter Kellner) was seriously ill, needing a wheelchair and spending most of Acts Two and Three in a hospital bed. Mijnssen seemed to have an unnecessary fascination with the mechanics of this illness, to the detriment of the sheer flow of the action, including an awful gap at one point when Kellner's King had to be manoeuvred from bed to wheelchair. Emyr Lloyd Jones's Odoardo thus became the King's nurse. 

Dramaturgically, the end of Act Two seemed undercooked. I think the scene between Lurcanio (Ed Lyon) and the King was somewhat cut, certainly it did not press itself on us as much as it needed. We lurched rather quickly to Ginevra's collapse. But even here Mijnssen tinkered with things. Handel left us a glorious conclusion to Act Two, where Ginevra's invocation to the furies is merged into a dream/nightmare ballet. None of this happened, and we focused on Ginevra's plight. Cue a knife and distressing cutting.

Handel: Ariodante - Christophe Dumaux, Elena Villalon - Royal Opera House (Photo: Bill Knight/RBO)

In Act Three, there was a duel and as they used fencing this seemed ideal. But Emily D'Angelo's Ariodante did not appear masked as another, anonymous defender of Ginevra's honour. There was no big reveal. D'Angelo simply appeared on stage. And of course there was no lieto fine. That was never in doubt because Jacquelyn Stucker's Ginevra was always profoundly disturbed. In fact, the dramaturgy seemed to move Ginevra directly from gloriously happy (and rather a bitch) to suicidal. The final Coro was sung by the chorus.

Musically, this was a wonderfully strong evening, but dramatically it left you wanting more. By the end of Act One we admired the music but felt no particular link to any of the characters, none of them were likeable. Acts Two and Three drew out the drama, but the subtle changes rather left the whole dramatic arc as somewhat unsatisfying. The final scene had a 'so what?' feel to it.

Montanari brought a similar interventionist feel to the music. There was some re-scoring, with D'Angelo's Ariodante getting recitative accompanied organ at times (something Handel never did), and in Ginevra's appeal to her father at the end of Act Two, Stucker did the beginning of the Da Capo unaccompanied. There were other places where it sounded as if a little 'adjustment' had been made, though I would need to listen again with a score. More obviously, in the big dramatic numbers like Ariodante's Scherza infida and Ginevra's Act Two appeal to her father, Montanari encouraged his singers to linger over and shape phrases in a way that felt far more 19th-century Bel Canto in style. Montanari also seemed to feel that the end of an aria needed a pause, allowing for lots of applause during the performance. In a psychologically apposite staging like this one, the way this held up the flow of the drama was overly disturbing.

Handel: Ariodante - Jacquelyn Stucker, Emily D'Angelo - Royal Opera House (Photo: Bill Knight/RBO)

The production seemed to want to explore the way both Ariodante and Ginevra were on the edge, moving almost immediately from bratty to dramatically overdone. Emily D'Angelo really leaned into this, after her fine but rather unsympathetic performance in Act One, Scherza infida was powerful indeed and throughout the rest of the opera she projected Ariodante's emotional lurches. The big reveal in Act Three felt underdone, but as I have implied this was not D'Angelo's fault. The ending, where Ariodante expected everything to return to what it was, directly arose from his behaviour in the first Act.

Ginevra's lurch was even more profound, with Stucker moving with alarming speed from bratty delight to suicidal impulse. Stucker has the musical chops to bring this off, and her arias in Act Two and Three were powerful indeed. And yet, and yet... Stucker and Mijnssen did not quite make her a sympathetic character. We understood her, but did not quite have sympathy for her. My memories of David Alden's production for ENO suggest that Alden managed this better. This was a shame, because Handel's music for Ginevra does have the sort of light and shade that was lacking here.

I am used to Dalinda being played as a soubrette role, she is a maid after all. Villalon was more dramatic and more of an equal to Stucker; in fact, their voices were probably rather closer in type than is desirable. Villalon's Dalinda was never pert and never overawed by Dumaux's Polinesso, but instead drew a dramatic arc across the whole opera. In fact, there was more light and shade in this dramatic arc than for Stucker's Ginevra, and Villalon managed to make the various dramatic lurches in Act Three seem believable, culminating in the touching duet of not quite reconciliation with Ed Lyon's Lurcanio.

Christophe Dumaux (the only member of the cast to carry over from the original production at Opera National du Rhin) made a brilliant, incisive Polinesso. He played the character as manipulative, almost evil incarnate. His delight in manoeuvring the others was palpable, and Dumaux brought a vivid edge to his singing which really captured this. In Act One, Dumaux's performance was really the only one that brought the act to life, and he built on this in later acts.

Handel: Ariodante - Jacquelyn Stucker, Emily D'Angelo - Royal Opera House (Photo: Bill Knight/RBO)

Ed Lyon's Lurcanio was a real lurker, hiding behind pillars and spying on people. Lyon made Lurcanio's love for Dalinda almost laughable in Act One, but Lurcanio's lurking paid off in Act Two when he was able to testify to seeing Ginevra dallying with Polinesso. His aria demanding vengeance was perhaps a surprise, but Lyon's dramatic presentation of the arias was compelling. Lyon's performance was definitely a high-point, and it is worth bearing in mind that the first Lurcanio was the young John Beard, a tenor for whom Handel would write some great oratorio parts.

Peter Kellner made a strong King, giving full weight to his arias and articulating the pull the man felt between being a good king and a loving father. Kellner really leaned into the depiction of the King as being seriously ill, but thankfully his musical performance did not disappoint. As Odoardo, Emyr Lloyd Jones impressed with his discreet support.

Despite my reservations about Montanari's interventionist approach, there was much to enjoy in the musical performance. The orchestra of the Royal Opera House really brought the historically informed element to the fore and from the opening notes of the overture I loved the orchestral performance.

Handel: Ariodante - Elena Villalon, Emily D'Angelo, Christophe Dumaux - Royal Opera House (Photo: Bill Knight/RBO)

There was much to enjoy in this production, particularly from a musical point of view. For much of Act One, Mijnssen's approach was just too fussy for my taste, the stage too busy. Thankfully, the important moments in Acts Two and Three were less frenetic, but we still saw rather too many serried ranks of servant. Overall, the production just failed to draw the various elements of the drama together, and I rather think that Mijnssen interest in the more extreme psychological approach weakened the dramaturgy.

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