✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper


Sign up by Email or Facebook.

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we sent newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Turning tips into memories

Get started Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Kids
  • Benefits
  • Membership
  • Get Started
  • Membership
  • Benefits
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Opera

Radamisto review ★★★★★, English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire

On 13 Oct 18, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

A complex tale of tyranny, lust and betrayal is simply told through music in a stylish new production

By Claudia Pritchard on 7/10/2018

William Towers and Katie Bray make their escape in Radamisto. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
William Towers and Katie Bray make their escape in Radamisto. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
Radamisto review , English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire 4 Radamisto review , English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire Claudia Pritchard
Always a problem, that theatrical business of spouses or siblings not recognising each other in disguise, sometimes for scene after scene. So how characteristically insightful of Handel and his librettist, probably his regular collaborator, Italian all-rounder Nicola Haym, to have Zenobia spot her husband inside the messenger's outfit in the title role of Radamisto.


'That voice!' she whispers, at once. Well, of course. Never married himself, nor a father, Handel shows time and time again in his many operas an understanding of human relationships and family intuition at odds with his bachelor lifestyle in Brook Street, off Regent Street, during his long years in London.


It was at the then new Royal Academy of Music, an unconnected forerunner of today's institution, that Radamisto was first performed in 1720, with many revisions and productions to follow, dropping characters and recasting roles.


First time round Radamisto was a 'trouser role' for a soprano. Then the celebrity castrato Senesino took over. For English Touring Opera in its handsome production at Hackney Empire, the very experienced countertenor William Towers nips up and down this demanding part, at one point while also clambering along a craggy cliff-face. And during this climb Zenobia apparently flings herself to her death, to release both from the clutches of the tyrant Tiridate.


In this Tosca-like moment it is ETO regular Katie Bray who tumbles alarmingly from the precipice; happily her singing is sure-footed, colourful and nuanced, every scene stepping up a gear when she is on stage. As Tiridate baritone Grant Doyle hates Radamisto, desires Zenobia, and despises his own wife Polissena, the sister of Radamisto, sung by a dignified Ellie Laugherne. Doyle's fine voice was heard in The Skating Rink at Garsington this summer, and he will be in villanous mood again in Spring 2019, when he sings with ETO at Hackney the title role in Verdi's Macbeth (9 March).



Andrew Slater (Farasmane) is tormented by Grant Doyle (Tiridate) in 'Radamisto'. Photo: Richar Hubert Smith


Bass Andrew Slater, as the siblings' tormented father, and John-Colyn Gyeantey as Tiridate's right-hand man, complete the cast of six. But the clever and stylish black-and-red design by Adam Wiltshire and lighting by Rory Beaton peoples the stage with the help of mirrors. Characters are literally and metaphorically reflective, often boxed in, as if by their limitations, or led to enlightenment by repeated candles or lamps.


ETO general director James Conway, directing one of three productions in the autumn Hackney residency, spots that Zenobia is really the star of the show – the opera was staged in Handel's native Germany with her name as the title – and in Katie Bray he has a heroine who is feisty and fearless. Still, Radamisto gets the showstopping aria 'Ombra cara', so he is not a complete letdown.


The Old Street Band gives a self-effacing performance under Peter Whelan. You may prefer your chromaticism shot through with more frisson – just think how the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment would shin up those sheer slopes – but you'll go a long way to hear such lovely bassoon work.


'Radamisto' is sung in Italian with English surtitles.
by Claudia Pritchard

What Radamisto review , English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire
Where Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street, London, E8 1EJ | MAP
Nearest tube Hackney Central (overground)
When On 13 Oct 18, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
Price £10 - £35
Website https://hackneyempire.co.uk/whats-on/radamisto/



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 23 - 25 April. Picture: Luiz Zerbini's Happiness Beyond Paradise, 2020
Things to do in London this weekend: 23 - 25 April
Kelly Macdonald in Line of Duty season 6, BBC One (Photo: BBC)
Line of Duty season 6 episode 5, BBC One review
London's best new restaurants. Photo: Chameleon.
Best new restaurants: London 2021's hottest gastronomic ventures

Editor's Picks

The Vienna Tonkünstler performs on 31 Oct
Zurich International Orchestra Series, Cadogan Hall
Howard Goodall is a powerful champion of music for all. Photo: Jane Cox
Howard Goodall interview: how Brexit turns the music down
Opera Holland Park reinvigorates the classics and brings forgotten works to light
Opera Holland Park 2019: classics and a discovery
Life in the capital suits Australian-born tenor Stuart Skelton. Photo: Simon Fernandez
Stuart Skelton interview: 'Wagner is a soap opera with the best soundtrack'
VOCES8 sing music from Byrd and Britten to Rachmaninov and Duke Ellington
Choral at Cadogan, Cadogan Hall
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

English Touring Opera

Handel

You might like

  • Soprano Katie Bray is the long-suffering queen of ancient Armenia in Radamisto. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith

    English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire

  • Epiphoni Consort is one of the most exciting new London choirs

    Bach's B Minor Mass, Southwark Cathedral

  • Bach Remixed includes two cantatas sung by Roderick Williams and his own composition Enough, for solo oboe

    Bach and the Cosmos: Bach Remixed, Queen Elizabeth Hall

  • ROH LinburyTheatre (c) Hufton & Crow 2018

    Linbury Theatre New Season Preview

  • The tenor Ian Bostridge sings pieces reflecting on war, bravery and loss

    5 Dec: Requiem, The Pity of War, Barbican



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • What is Culture Whisper membership
  • Corporate membership
  • Give a gift membership
  • Retrieve a gift membership
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×