Handel’s Susanna from Opera North & Phoenix Dance Theatre with Anna Dennis & James Corridor

Handel: Susanna – Anna Dennis – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Photograph: Tristram Kenton)

Handel: Susanna; Anna Dennis, James Corridor, Matthew Brook, Claire Lees, Colin Judson, Karl Haml, Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre, director: Olivia Fuchs, choreographer: Marcus Jarrell Willis, conductor: Johanna Soller; Opera North at Theatre Royal Nottingham
Reviewed 21 November 2025

Handel’s oratorio was a outstanding dance drama, integrating opera and motion with a efficiency of outstanding centered depth from Anna Dennis within the title position

Dance has been an integral a part of opera for the reason that early Baroque, although fairly how the 2 have built-in has various over time and place. The French Baroque fashion of just about synthesis not being adopted in different international locations, and the UK nonetheless appears cautious of the operas of Lully and Rameau, unwilling or unable to mix motion and singing in an expressive means.

In France, because the nineteenth century progressed the combination was extra formalised much less seamless while in Italy opera was not devoid of dance as evenings usually contained ballets alongside the opera. This separation has moderately continued. A lot in order that productions just like the Royal Opera’s current efficiency of Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes fortunately eliminated the ballet [see my review] while Wexford Competition Opera’s current manufacturing of Verdi’s Le Trouvère supplied a uncommon outing for Verdi’s ballet music for the opera. [see my review]

Fashionable instances have seen dance included into drama in works like Britten’s Demise in Venice however you’re simply as more likely to see music subservient to bounce as in Mark Morris’ model of Handel’s L’Allegro. In 2024, Olivia Fuchs directed Britten’s Demise in Venice at Welsh Nationwide Opera in a manufacturing that includes an modern collaboration with NoFitState circus, nearly redefining the drama in that opera. [see my review]

Handel: Susanna – Anna Dennis, James Corridor with Yasmina Patel and Teige Bisnought from Phoenix Dance Theatre – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Photograph: Tristram Kenton)

So, Opera North‘s resolution to resume its collaboration with Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre through a manufacturing of Handel’s Susanna, directed by Olivia Fuchs was an intriguing prospect. We caught the ultimate efficiency of the tour, on the Theatre Royal, Nottingham on Friday 21 November 2025. The opera was directed by Olivia Fuchs, performed by Johanna Soller with designs by Zahra Mansouri. Choreography was by Marcus Jarrell Willis, inventive director of Phoenix Dance Theatre. 

James Corridor was Joacim and Anna Dennis was Susanna with Matthew Brook as Chelsias, Colin Judson and Karl Huml because the Elders, Amy Freston as Susanna’s attendant, Claire Lees as Daniel and Dean Robinson as Decide. There have been seven dancers (an extra two had been sadly unwell) who carried out alongside the soloists and refrain. The orchestra featured the trendy devices of the Orchestra of Opera North together with theorbo and two harpsichords (one performed by Johanna Soller).

The costumes had been fashionable however in largely muted colors and the set featured a gantry on the rear offering a two-level area which meant dance and singing might function concurrently but individually. Act Two featured translucent glass screens and a shower, however the design method was admirably uncluttered.

At instances the dancers supplied doubles to the singers. Throughout Act One’s lengthy celebration of the love between Joacim (James Corridor) and Susanna (Anna Dennis) there was a dance element too. Slightly than distracting, it helped to determine the ravishing pastoral ambiance. The opera opened with a scene the place refrain and dancers mingled: stationary at first, then some moved and a few sang to putting impact.

Fortunately this was not a danced oratorio. Music, drama, singing and dance intermingled, but Olivia Fuchs and Marcus Jarrell Willis knew when to go away properly alone. The top of Act Two incorporates a highly effective refrain that was offered with out dance, however not missing in motion. All through the staging strains had been blurred, the refrain members shifting (together with Peter Sellers-like hand gestures), and Anna Dennis’s expressive efficiency shading into motion too.

Handel: Susanna – Anna Dennis, with Tony Polo and Aaron Chaplin from Phoenix Dance Theatre – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Photograph: Tristram Kenton)

Susanna can typically appear an odd combine of great and lighter parts with the large-scale choruses offering a problem to administrators. The manufacturing’s focus was very a lot on the determine of Susanna and her highly effective integrity. Even when fully cornered, Anna Dennis radiated intelligence and integrity, and on the opening of Act Three a simmering anger too. Dennis’s efficiency was mesmerising. We noticed her within the position earlier this yr with the Dunedin Consort [see my review], however this staging appeared so as to add one other layer to her efficiency. Even when nonetheless or silent she blazed, and this Susanna was an actual focus. She was pleasant within the ‘Crystal Streams’ aria, sung in her bathtub. Then her interplay with the Elders (Colin Judson and Karl Huml) was all outrage. Because the drama developed, her centered depth introduced out the standard of Handel’s music.

The character of Joacim can appear a little bit of an add-on to the drama. He duets with Susanna in Act One, however then absent from house, he merely opens and closes Act Two and solely returns on the finish of Act Three after the drama is over. Right here Olivia Fuchs managed to make James Corridor’s Joacim appear integral to the drama, helped by Corridor’s outstanding efficiency. In Joacim’s ultimate aria on the finish of Act Two, when he has discovered of Susanna’s destiny, Corridor was each searing in his depth and remarkably bodily; his presence was overwhelming and also you sense that this mattered. When Joacim lastly appeared in direction of the tip of Act Three, Corridor made him appear nearly approaching bodily collapse.

While the opera did finish fortunately, this happiness was laborious gained. Fuchs didn’t present her characters with a simple resolution, the staging of Joacim’s return and the scenes with Susanna was masterly as the 2 struggled to realize some type of equilibrium. This made the ultimate scenes and their final reconciliation all of the extra shifting.

There was definitely nothing comedian about Colin Judson and Karl Huml’s performances because the Elders. Each had been middle-aged, each entitled, the parallels had been apparent but this was performed with out urgent. And the ultimate scenes included Anna Dennis enacting Susanna’s humiliation on them!

Handel: Susanna – Colin Judson, Anna Dennis, Karl Huml – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Photograph: Tristram Kenton)

Matthew Brook’s Chelsias was all good nature and bonhomie. Brook introduced out the musicality of the position, and I moderately loved the best way his eruption into proceedings on the finish of Act Three was considerably tone deaf; neither Corridor’s Joacim nor Dennis’s Susanna had been fairly prepared.

Claire Lees’ Daniel was offered as brilliant, clever and different. It wasn’t simply Daniel’s otherness when it got here to gender fluidity, however they had been the primary splash of vivid color all night. Lees was splendidly partaking, notably the best way she drew Dennis’s Susanna and Corridor’s Joacim collectively after Susanna appeared to get too centered on Daniel! Amy Freston supplied fashionable help as Susanna’s attendant in Act Two, while Dean Robinson was the dignified decide on the finish of Act Three.

The refrain was on terrific type. Not solely had been a number of roles performed by refrain members (Amy Freston, Clare Lees, Dean Robinson) however the refrain, motion and dance appeared to be remarkably built-in. There have been not often any moments the place you felt the efficiency break up into separate singing and dancing. When it comes to Handelian oratorio, the efficiency was greater than creditable too. This can be a refrain touring Handel and Puccini, but chameleon-like there was no bleed over.

Equally the orchestra was on fashionable type. Sure, these had been clearly fashionable devices (barring the continuo devices) however the sound world was properly into the traditionally knowledgeable territory. There have been few moments when nineteenth or twentieth century over-romanticism crept in. Johanna Soller drew superb performances from all involved. Her tempos appeared pure, and there was little sense that the dance ingredient was taking priority as can typically occur.

Handel: Susanna – Dylan Springer held aloft by Tony Polo, Teige Bisnought, Aaron Chaplin and Hannah McGlashon of Phoenix Dance Theatre – Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Photograph: Tristram Kenton)

The entire night flowed properly, and an oratorio that may typically battle to discover a comfortable medium between giant musical scale and home drama appeared to metamorphose into a really satisfying dance drama. I by no means felt that Willis’s choreography pulled focus from the singers, and infrequently it contributed even when the dancers had been within the background. Clearly this staging was an experiment, and should be counted a really actual success.