Magda Krance on Haymarket Opera Company’s Alcina at Ravinia Festival

On a sunny Sunday morning in late August I made the two-and-a-half-hour trek to Highland Park from my childhood/retirement home near Oshkosh. There were compelling reasons for the trip: the excitement of Haymarket Opera Company’s debut at the Ravinia Festival, the chance to hear an outstanding cast of Ryan Opera Center alumni in the intimate confines of the Martin Theatre, and the opportunity to reconnect with longtime Chicago-area friends and colleagues, at least briefly.

Handel’s Alcina is a fine opera full of breathtaking vocal pyrotechnics that I’d experienced live only once previously, at Lyric Opera of Chicago in the 1999-2000 season. Back then I was Lyric’s manager of media relations, and had the pleasure of promoting Alcina’s company premiere, which meant attending several rehearsals and performances to get to know the artists and the work itself, as well as arranging interviews, feature coverage, and production photography. Renée Fleming starred in the title role, along with Natalie Dessay and Jennifer Larmore making memorable company debuts as Morgana and Ruggiero respectively, and with Rockwell Black as Oronte. The late John Nelson conducted the full-sized modern-instrument Lyric Opera Orchestra (with Eric Weimer, a longtime member of Lyric’s music staff until his recent retirement, playing harpsichord continuo) and the onstage artists in a sleek contemporary production by Robert Carsen (which many recall for its brooding nude male dancers/ supernumeraries). In the 3,500-seat grand opera house, it looked and sounded appropriately grand.

Haymarket’s recent semistaged concert presentation of Alcina proved to be an entirely different and thoroughly captivating experience of the Handel opera. The 19-piece period-instrument orchestra fit nicely on the Martin Theatre stage, with enough space to accommodate the nimble comings and goings of the six-person cast (who all kept their clothes on—though Erica Schuller/Morgana did wear an appropriately saucy gold-lamé asymmetrical gown that revealed her lovely shoulders and back). Craig Trompeter’s sensitive conducting and Chase Hopkins’s thoughtful stage direction kept the music and storytelling moving at a smart pace. The clarity of the projected titles (by Craig, Chase, and Hannah Zizza Stanfield, Haymarket’s assistant director and titles coordinator) helped make sense of the Baroquely convoluted story concerning brave Bradamante’s efforts to rescue her bewitched spouse Oronte from the romantic clutches of the sorceress Alcina on her enchanted island, amidst a host of hidden and mistaken identities and misplaced affections. The nearly full-house audience in the 850-seat theater was raptly attentive and enthusiastically, vocally supportive throughout the afternoon, at times whooping and cheering as one would at a sportsing event. 

Sometime after intermission, a wave of emotion caught me by surprise, and not because of a poignant plot point.  During their respective formative years at Lyric’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, I’d gotten to know Nicole Cabell (2002-05), Elizabeth DeShong (2005-08), Emily Fons (2010-12), David Govertsen (2011-13), and Eric Ferring (2018-2020). I watched and listened to each of them in countless rehearsals, concerts, and performances, and escorted them to interviews and photo sessions. I’d also occasionally sung as a sub at St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church with Erica Schuller over the years. 

As impressively talented as each artist was when we worked together at different times over nearly two decades during their Ryan Opera Center residencies, they were still very much works in progress, relative youngsters in their 20s, albeit hugely talented, major competition-winning young adults. In the intervening years I’ve watched all six singers mature artistically, delivering a range of fine performances at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, the Green Lake Festival of Music, and of course Haymarket Opera Company, in addition to their triumphs farther afield. It’s been a joy to see them blossom and grow regionally, nationally, and internationally, along with so many other Ryan Opera Center alumni. 

All of which is why I now felt like a proud, slightly verklempt auntie, a little shocked but not at all surprised at how exceptional and flat-out thrilling this performance of Alcina was, individually and collectively. Over the years these singers have grown from “rising stars” into outstanding, fully formed artists with a range of individual life experiences that inform their artistry. All were radiantly confident in the vocally demanding roles they inhabited on that Sunday afternoon. And they all appeared to be enjoying themselves and each other immensely in the process.

What makes the supreme confidence of that Sunday matinee especially remarkable is that Erica (Morgana), Emily (Ruggiero), Eric (Oronte), and David (Melisso) were all making role debuts. (Eric had covered the role previously at Santa Fe Opera, but hadn’t taken it onstage.) Nicole has performed the title role just once previously, in a fully staged 2016 production at le Grand Théâtre de Genève. Elizabeth has portrayed Bradamante in concert at Milan’s La Scala (2024) and Valencia’s Palau des Arts Reina Sofia (2023) with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, and at LA Opera (2021) with Harry Bicket and The English Concert. 

No difference of experience in their roles was apparent to the audience on that August Sunday; all the artists brought their most polished A game to the stage, portraying their characters and delivering their thrilling vocal acrobatics with aplomb. It was the musical equivalent of watching topnotch equestrians jumping seemingly impossible hurdles with great athleticism and seemingly effortless ease. Additionally, Emily, Elizabeth, Eric, and David made their Ravinia debuts with Alcina. (Erica has appeared there previously as a soloist with Apollo’s Fire, and Nicole has been a featured artist at Ravinia nine times previously since 2002.) 

After the final ovations and bravissimis the audience emerged from the dazzling performance of Alcina in the Martin Theatre, blinking in the afternoon sun and starry-eyed from the musical triumph they’d just experienced, which won’t soon be forgotten. 

Learn more about Haymarket’s 2025 performance of Handel’s Alcina.

About the author

After dropping out of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1977, Magda Krance began her professional life as a magazine editor with Mariah magazine (now Outside), eventually earning her Master’s of Science in Journalism degree. In 1980 she became a fulltime freelance journalist for publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, Time, People, Playboy, Spy,  Vis à Vis (United Airlines), Self, American Health, Travel & Leisure, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Magazine, and several others. She covered a range of topics, including arts and culture, politics, science, health, human interest, and personality profiles. She also sang with and worked as a publicist for Basically Bach. 

From 1992 to mid-2021, Magda worked in the marketing-PR department at Lyric Opera of Chicago, most recently as director of media relations. She collaborated with local, national, and international editors, journalists, and music critics to garner extensive coverage of Lyric’s productions, artists, and staff. Highlights included several cover stories and major features in Opera News; numerous features in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times; and most notably a nine-part series in The New York Times on “The Making of an Opera,” which chronicled the creation of A View from the Bridge by William Bolcom, based on the Arthur Miller play, during the 1999-2000 season.

Magda sang professionally with the Evanston-based chamber ensemble Bella Voce (previously His Majestie’s Clerkes) from 1992 through 2019, and now serves as board secretary. She also serves on the board of the Green Lake Festival of Music. She graduated magna cum laude from Macalester College (St. Paul) in 1976, where she sang in the concert choir under Dale Warland. She credits New York City Pro Musica with influencing her musical tastes in high school thanks to live concerts and a stack of LPs she still owns.

While maintaining a residence in Chicago, Magda returned to her childhood home near Oshkosh, Wisconsin, during the pandemic, and retired from Lyric in 2021. She has been proofreading programs and other materials for Haymarket Opera since 2023.

About The Haymarket Review: This new digital publication including thoughts about  the work produced by Haymarket is designed to deepen our connection to audiences, nurture and feed audience curiosity about historical performance, offer critical opinions and thoughtful reflections on our performances, and provide a forum for Haymarket and its audience to connect through sharing insights, opinions, learning, and expertise.