Style, engagement & joy: Handel's Partenope returns to ENO with a terrific young cast

Handel: Partenope - English National Opera (Photo: Lloyd Winters)

Handel: Partenope; Nardus Williams, Hugh Cutting, Ru Charlesworth, Jake Ingbar, Katie Bray, William Thomas, director: Christopher Alden, conductor: William Cole, English National Opera; London Coliseum
Reviewed 26 November 2025

1920s Paris-set production returns with director Christopher Alden back at the helm and a team of superb young soloists who sing stylishly and enter into the concept with a will

Part of the fun of Handel's Partenope is the games it plays with gender and perceived roles. Arsace is the notional hero, Handel wrote the role for a distinguished castrato, but rather than being a moral example the character is weak having ditched one woman for another. The secondary male lead, Armindo was played by a woman en travestie and the character is timid, taking nearly half the opera to admit his love to Partenope. But the woman that Arsace ditched, Rosmira, appears dressed as a man and the big reveal in Act Three is when Arsace insists that he and Rosmira's male incarnation perform their duel bare-chested. The work's comedy thus comes from this play with the original audience's expectations.

English National Opera's production of Partenope directed by Christopher Alden has played extra games with the audience since its debut in 2008. At the 2017 revival [see my review] Arsace was himself played by a woman (Patricia Bardon) and the production has never, I think, used a woman for Armindo as Handel did.

For ENO's latest revival which we saw on 26 November 2025, casting is firmly based on the characters' gender with a cast of young singers bringing new energy to the production. For this revival Christopher Alden returned to direct and Christian Curnyn, the original conductor, was due to be in the pit though his illness meant that William Cole was in charge. Nardus Williams was Partenope, with Hugh Cutting as Arsace, Ru Charlesworth as Emilio, Jake Ingbar as Armindo, Katie Bray as Rosmira and William Thomas as Ormonte.

Handel: Partenope - Nardus Williams, Jake Ingbar, Ru Charlesworth - English National Opera (Photo: Lloyd Winters)

Alden and designers Andrew Lieberman (sets) and Jon Morrell (costumes) set the opera at a salon in Paris in the 1920s with all the men flitting around Nardus Williams' stylish hostess, Partenope. Whilst I have enjoyed the production over the years, the setting and Alden's approach still does not quite convince. The 'battle' at the opening of Act Two remains unconvincing, but then HGO's 2019 beachside Victorian production had a similar problem [see my review]. From the middle of Act Two to the end of the opera, Alden seems to progressively abandon his own dramatic logic and by the middle of Act Three, when Jake Ingbar's Armindo did a tap dance during his aria and William Thomas's Ormonte oversaw the duet in extravagant 18th century drag, you felt that Alden was simply throwing everything at the piece to keep the audience entertained.

Whilst there was a degree of dramatic logic throughout, there was also the feeling that Alden was using stagecraft to keep the work busy: arias were rarely if every done alone on stage. This sense of entertainment meant that apart from the arc of the story between Hugh Cutting's Arsace and Katie Bray's Rosmira which was rendered with searing intensity, all the other characters were came over as trivial or surface. Handel did not write the opera as a comedy, it is a serious piece with satirical moments, but here we were never really encouraged to dig too deep into the motivations of the other characters

The production engaged because of the sheer craft and musicality of the performers. This was a real demonstration of the quality of Handel and Baroque opera performance amongst young singers. Nardus Williams held the stage wonderfully as Partenope, her stylish and stylised movement complemented by some superb singing. In the first act her outfit (trouser-suit) and mannerisms almost evoked Dietrich. She dazzled and glittered, but there was thoughtfulness too especially in her Act Two aria which was a moment of introspection.

Handel: Partenope - Hugh Cutting, Nardus Williams - English National Opera (Photo: Lloyd Winters)

Hugh Cutting's Arsace began the opera simply as one of the moths fluttering around Partenope's flame, but as the plot arc with Katie Bray's Rosmira developed, so did Cutting's performance deepen. This was not a shallow Arsace, Cutting imbued him with fascinating conflict and complexity, allied to Cutting's superb musicality. His voice seemed to fill the Coliseum effortlessly and his big Act Three aria was searing in its intensity, rendered all the more striking by all the mad campery going on in the production. This was a far bigger role than Cutting's performance as Unulfo in Ariodante at Garsington this summer [see my review] and most definitely a promise of treats to come.

Katie Bray's performance as Rosmira was similarly highly charged, with Bray really bringing out the character's conflicted intensity. The production avoids some of the complex layering of the original. Here, when Arsace and Rosmira become intimate towards the end of Act Two she shed some of her disguise, removing the homoerotic element but you wonder what that original audience would have seen. It is perhaps, significant also, that Handel gave the final arias in the first two acts to Arsace and Rosmira. Final arias in acts in Handel are often a place for deep reflection or powerful intent, and that was the case here thus showcasing these two characters more.

Armindo is the lesser 'male' role, with fewer arias but still an important cog in the drama. American countertenor Jake Ingbar, making his ENO debut, impressed with his musicality and ability to shape character. But what most people will remember from the production is his physical dexterity, his ability to creep, slide and generally use his body. I am not sure what this was meant to say about Armindo's character, but certainly there were scenes where Ingbar's antics rather pulled focus from the musical plot.

Handel: Partenope - Katie Bray - English National Opera (Photo: Lloyd Winters)

The production seemed somewhat conflicted about Emilio, whose forces attack Partenope at the opening of Act Two. Here Emilio was portrayed as a Man-Ray-like figure who prowled around unnoticed. Yet, after the 'attack' in Act Two he almost becomes one of the boys. Ru Charlesworth stood in at short notice for the production's 2017 revival and he returned to the role. Charlesworth's musical performance certainly made you forget any doubts you might have. Singing with a finely heroic sense of line, with real vibrant tone yet still plenty of definition in his passagework, Charlesworth almost gave a heroic feel to the character, undercut by an element of camp that crept in gradually. Next stop, Bajazet we hope.

The character of Ormonte is something of a spare wheel, more an on-looker to the drama. But William Thomas sang engagingly and not for the first time you rather regretted the Baroque opera convention that confined bass voices to smaller roles.

Diction was excellent all round and words were wonderfully comprehensible. I was particularly impressed at by Nardus Williams' admirable clarity, something that does not always happen with elaborate soprano parts, but all the singers worked hard and from row G in the Stalls the work paid off.

In the pit William Cole drew a fine performance from the orchestra. The ENO Orchestra has long experience off performing Handel and there was certainly nothing half-hearted about their espousal of a suggestion of historically informed style. There was a lot to enjoy musically in this remarkably rich score; the arias might be largely rather shorter but Handel was full of imagination.

Handel: Partenope - Hugh Cutting, Nardus Williams, Katie Bray, William Thomas - English National Opera (Photo: Lloyd Winters)

What really came over in this performance was not just the grasp of Baroque style that the young singers had but the sense that they enjoyed it. There was a palpable feeling of engagement and joy about the production.

 

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