For all their convoluted royal romances and hocus pocus, the essence of most Handel opera plotlines is basic – to do with people and their foibles. Whether these come over as vapid or profound is largely up to the production. In this intelligent second-world-war take on Orlando for Scottish Opera, Harry Fehr has created a moving and provocative human drama, centered around a captivating performance from countertenor Tim Mead.
Orlando is a star RAF pilot admitted to a private west London hospital. Zoroastro is Orlando's psychiatrist, treating what first seems to be mild shell shock but turns out to be a destructive tug-of-war between patriotic duty and infatuation with Angelica, an American socialite. Parallels with Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson are laid on thick in photo projections (and look opportunistic, given the current success of a certain film), but the war setting gives urgency to the characters' desperation for love and their general neurosis. Orlando's mad scene is a powerful piece of theatre, set to a backdrop of the blitz and Zoroastro's arrogant faith in his psychiatric methods.
A hospital set can be drab, but Yannis Thavoris's designs add just enough period detail to keep things stylish. Anyway, Mead's Orlando needs little decoration: his voice is in gorgeous, expressive form, and his acting is utterly convincing. Claire Booth's easy, ebullient soprano problematically makes the nurse Dorinda more endearing than Sally Silver's matronly Angelica, whose singing is heavier than the otherwise first-rate cast. Conductor Paul Goodwin has deftly turned Scottish Opera's orchestra into a credible baroque band: it seems things are decidedly back on track for this company.
