New Worlds | The Enchanted Forest

Handel weaves spells, Rameau dances with gods, and Francesco Geminiani creates a whole enchanted forest on this magical history tour with Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music.

Flying horses, seductive witches and aerial ballets for goddesses, Graces and the very elements themselves. Welcome to baroque theatre – where storylines were fantastic, effects were spectacular and composers like Handel and Rameau became conjurors, summoning entire supernatural worlds of magic and illusion.

Hear the sorceress Alcina bewitch the heroic Ruggiero, while dreams come to life and dance in Rameau’s Dardanus. And then plunge deep into The Enchanted Forest of Francesco Geminiani – an extraordinary pantomime-ballet, created in Paris 1754, that uses a super-sized orchestra (and a supercharged imagination) to tell a tale of knights, wizards and monsters. An evening of words and truly enchanted music: surrender to its spell…