Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/215277
A&E BRIEFS Adelaide Boedecker will play the part of Alcina in performances of arias from Handel's opera of the same name. Contributed photo SORCERY & ILLUSION TO BE OFFERED AT CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER Six nationally acclaimed singers "will take concert-goers on an enchanting, seductive, show-stopping tour of G.F. Handel's masterful opera, Alcina," Sunday, Nov. 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Church of the Redeemer in downtown Sarasota, the church has announced. "Powerhouse Metropolitan Opera singers Rebecca Price and Jason Stearns," along with established and up-and-coming singers Adelaide Boedecker, Adam Bielamowicz, Monica Pasquini and Reba Evans will perform select arias of the opera, with narration provided by June LeBell of Sarasota, a news release says. The singers will be accompanied by a full chamber orchestra led by Todd Craven, conductor of the First Brass ensemble, with Redeemer's choirmaster Ann Stephenson-Moe, playing harpsichord. "Alcina is a beautiful and powerful sorceress," says Stephenson-Moe in the release. "Men swoon and fall in love with her, but when she tires of them, as she inevitably does, she uses sorcery to turn them into stones or trees. She must never fall in love. If she does, she loses her powers." "Twists and turns of love, betrayal, desire and illusion compel the story," the release points out. "Alcina (Boedecker) is embroiled in a passionate love affair with Ruggiero (Price), but Ruggiero is affianced to Bradamante (Evans). With her tutor, Melisso (Stearns), along for the ride, Bradamante disguises herself as a young man named Ricciardo and travels to spy on her straying fiancé. Alcina's sister, Morgana (Pasquini), becomes besotted with Ricciardo/Bradamante, and her regular lover, Oronte (Bielamowicz), responds by