![\"Magdalena](\"https:\/\/s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com\/442mediafile-228\/original\/12dfc6ed3c6dbd66bff0a0c7dc4109e4.jpeg\")
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Handel premiered Alcina at London’s Covent Garden Theatre in 1735, at a time when competition between his own company and that of the so-called Opera of the Nobility was straining his financial resources and good humour. And the composer did his best to create a major work of the lyric art of his time, creating one of the most powerful and moving portraits of women of his entire career, that of Alcina. The enchantress from Ariosto’s Orlando furioso achieves imposing dramatic stature in Handel’s opera. Accompanied by the Ensemble La Cetra from Basel under the direction of Andrea Marcon, with whom she has worked for years, and against a backdrop of instrumental pieces that underscore the singing, Magdalena Ko\u017een\u00e1 revisits all of the character’s solo numbers in a challenge that promises to be absolutely magical.<\/p>\n