Handel operas - Arianna in Creta and Rodelinda

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  • Dave2002
    Full Member
    • Dec 2010
    • 18045

    Handel operas - Arianna in Creta and Rodelinda

    Did anyone see Arianna in Creta at the RCM this week - part of the Handel festival? Quite good, though a bit long winded.
    The Minotaur attacked and died very quickly - all over in a minute or so, whereas the build up took several hours.

    I'm thinking of trying Rodelinda at ENO in the coming week. Does anyone have any views on that work and the performance yet? I don't know the work.
  • Nachtigall
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 146

    #2
    Saw Rodelinda on Tuesday last and thoroughly enjoyed it. You might have misgivings about the production, which is set in 1950s mafioso Italy, with accompanying violence and bloodshed – and, oddly, but fashionably, I suppose – tattooing. However, the singing is glorious, as is the orchestral playing. It's worth going for Iestyn Davies's performance as Bertarido alone. The FT review, while overdoing the hostility to Richard Jones's production, more or less sums up my reactions. If you're at all interested in Handel operas don't miss it.

    Directed by Richard Jones, ENO’s production plays Handel’s opera as political slapstick

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    • aeolium
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 3992

      #3
      Dave2002, Rodelinda's being broadcast tonight from ENO on R3 so if you want to find out about the music here's your chance. I think the music is very good, not far behind that of my favourite Handel operas, Giulio Cesare and Ariodante.

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      • MickyD
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 4832

        #4
        There are good recordings of it from Nicholas McGegan and Alan Curtis, too.

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        • doversoul1
          Ex Member
          • Dec 2010
          • 7132

          #5
          I am listening now. I feel sorry for any countertenors who have to sing on the same stage with Iestyn Davies.
          Live from the Coliseum in London, an ENO performance of Handel's opera Rodelinda.

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