In this new production of Handel’s fantastical opera, Alcina the sorcerer’s ‘magical urn’ is a giant glass bottle of love potion. This is smashed at the climax of the show.

I created a sound effect for this moment, not using glass which never sounds that ‘glassy’ over a speaker system and doesn’t feel particularly delightful or magical. Instead I use dozens of tiny nails which I dropped onto ceramic tile, then down-pitched randomly to give the impression of more heft. I randomly layered these delicate sounds, dozens of times over, to create a sonic cloud of collisions – somewhere between a glassy and metallic effect. In the Royal Opera House auditorium, I was able to spatialise these sounds, to some extent, to create a magical effect which lasted around half a minute. I also added in a bass note, tuned to match the continuo’s previous chord, so this sound effect gelled with the music and didn’t feel like a jarring interjection from another soundworld.

The Royal Opera House production of Alcina was directed by Richard Jones.