Stone Nest doesn’t look much from the outside: an unmarked door up a couple of steps, just off a busy junction. But how many West End arts venues can claim to be not only a former chapel but also an ex-nightclub and an ex-squat? London Handel festival’s latest venture there, a staging of four of Handel’s early Italian cantatas interspersed with newly commissioned music by Héloïse Werner, revelled in the space’s semi-curated grottiness. Directed by Adele Thomas and designed by Hannah Clark, it was grungy black for all (hoodies, leather, chunky footwear), plus stylised tears in glitter makeup. The smoke machine worked its magic; the lighting was almost filmic.
The instrumentalists, singers and dancer alike were often mobile, evaporating from the main space only to reappear on a balcony or framed by a gothic brick archway. Limbs missed me by centimetres as bodies flew past. The double bassist was within arm’s reach as she despatched Handel’s tempestuous figuration with historically informed panache. The proximity was thrilling.
