The history of opera has never ceased to be haunted by temptresses bewitching men. Alcina is no exception: she seduces her victims to the point where they forget their own homeland. Is it a risk of perverted love or the delights of unbridled passion? Beyond the supernatural, Handel’s stroke of genius was to portray Alcina as a woman who suffers: profoundly human and touching. The song of the vanquished sorceress awakens a strange compassion within us. Robert Carsen, whose production brought the work into the Paris Opera’s repertoire, plays with immensesubtlety on this ambiguity and the chiaroscuro subtlety on this ambiguity and the chiaroscuro of emotions and hidden desires.