GIUSTINO

2026 Royal Ballet & Opera Linbury Theatre Music George Frederic Handel Conductor David Bates Associate director Jenny Ogilvie Lighting James Farncombe Assistant director Hannah Calascione Cast Jake Arditti / Mireille Asselin / Esme Bronwen-Smith / Keri Fuge Benjamin Hulett / Polly Leech / Jonathan Lemalu Production / rehearsal photography Marc Brenner Additional photography Rosanna Vize

“Handel’s long-lost opera, directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins, turns out to be a winner” (The Stage) ★★★★ “Stylish” (Arts Desk) ★★★★ “Vividly realised” (The Times) ★★★★ “Nimble, witty staging lets Giustino sparkle” (Music OMH) ★★★★ “Hill-Gibbins’s brilliantly imaginative new production” (The Observer)

“Making his Royal Opera debut, director Joe Hill-Gibbins strips the piece of its supernatural elements. What, after all, are monsters and gods but dramatic outsourcings of human desires and agendas? So the sea-creature is revealed as three men in a (metaphorical) trench-coat, and the bear is scheming Amanzio in disguise. Even La Fortuna here becomes Arianna herself, taking an active (and sequinned) role in summoning her new champion” Arts Desk