Latest news with #Rodelinda
The Guardian
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Rodelinda review – powerplay and pig's blood in thrillingly energised Handel
Handel's operas don't stage themselves. In her new production of Rodelinda for Garsington Opera, the director Ruth Knight has to grapple, like those before her, with the need to balance the tone, taking the story and its unlikely curveballs seriously enough to make us care, and yet finding enough levity to entertain. By and large she succeeds – but even if not everything we see on stage convinces, what we hear certainly does. The cast, led by Lucy Crowe's powerhouse Rodelinda and Tim Mead's gloriously rich-toned Bertarido, is first-rate, the playing of the English Concert thrillingly energised. Conducted by Peter Whelan, they support the singers yet never give the impression of holding back. Leslie Travers' set brings the bones of the Garsington Opera pavilion on to the stage, with the same steel beams and glass panels that are all around us creating two levels of playing area. At the top there are three groves of green trees, one for each of the royal siblings whose power plays, depicted in the busy overture, have led to the opera's starting point; all have turned to ash by Act three. It mostly works well, but can feel cramped, with the tallest dancer's head missing the girders by only inches. Those dancers are the usurper Grimoaldo's staff: a dozen or so creepy ninja-like attendants who move like snakes or birds. Sometimes they fight; more often they lurk, staring – a pack of velociraptors who are not quite hungry yet, but will be soon. Crowe's Rodelinda takes several of them down in her first rage aria, whirling her sword like Uma Thurman as the Bride, but in gold silk trousers rather than a yellow boiler suit; later she'll drink blood squeezed from a pig's heart before popping out high notes like little explosions. What with those attendants and this heroine – not to mention the deliciously devilish villainy of Grimoaldo's ambitious adviser Garibaldo, smoothly sung by the bass-baritone Brandon Cedel – the feeling of menace and high stakes is taken care of. As for the counterbalance, there are surprisingly generous touches of lightness, the best of which come courtesy of Ed Lyon's Grimoaldo, a perfectly judged portrayal full of lightly worn swagger and increasing self-pity, or from the Unulfo of the impressive young countertenor Hugh Cutting, a kind of friend to all sides who slouches amiably around, ciggie in hand; at the end there's a cute but superfluous suggestion that he's a guardian angel who's just earned his wings. Why Bertarido's disguise should be quite so comically sparkly and camp is anyone's guess, though, and it rather undermines the opera's hero. Still, perhaps that is Knight's point: often this opera can feel like it should be called Bertarido, but this time it's definitely Rodelinda who is centre stage. At Garsington Opera, Buckinghamshire, until 19 July
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Rodelinda, Garsington: Handel's great opera is bogged down by laboured symbolism
Handel's great 1725 opera Rodelinda is as confusing as any from the Baroque era, but underneath the shifting alliances there is a gripping elemental confrontation of two worlds. Inside the palace there is the captured Queen Rodelinda, who is heartbroken at the (apparent) death of her husband, and is fighting like a tiger to protect herself and her son from the usurper Grimoaldo who wants to marry her. Outside, living on berries and spring water, is her husband King Bertarido, helped by one faithful friend, and waiting impatiently for the right moment to strike back. It's a gift, but the director of Garsington's new production spurns it. Instead Ruth Knight foists on us a very odd three-fold directorial concept. Perched above the stage in Leslie Travers' design are three interconnected metal boxes through which the characters roam. These represent the three-way split of the Lombard kingdom, in turn forming the 'back story' of the opera that one finds it difficult to care about. Knight's decision to fill the boxes with symbolically flourishing greenery, progressively reduced to grey ashes by power and ambition, does little to help. That's one annoying thing about the production. The other is the troupe of 14 dancers clad in black clothing and wielding huge golden orbs and sceptres who hover and gesture menacingly or pleadingly around the characters, as if blown about by their outsize emotions. Gold is a big thing in this production: the usurper Grimoaldo is covered with it, making him look increasingly silly. Again, the not-very-surprising message appears to be: power and money corrupt. Half-hidden under this laboured symbolism were some humanly engaging performances. Lucy Crowe as Rodelinda heroically surmounted Handel's vertiginous leaps and runs, and by sheer force of character managed to wrong-foot the powerful, scheming males around her. It's a shame she wasn't in her best voice. Neither was Tim Mead as her husband Bertarido. It's a tricky role which needs a core of quietly suffering dignity if the exiled King isn't to come across as over-emotional and self-pitying – which is, disappointingly, how he seemed here. Ed Lyon tried to make Grimoaldo's eventual softening of heart seem convincing, but given his absurd outfit of green suit and gold laurel leaf it was hard to endow him with any real character. Many of the best performances were the minor ones. Brandon Cedel was an enjoyable parody of a chin-stroking villain as Grimoalda's two-faced ally Garibaldo. The most striking person vocally was Marvic Monreal as Bertarido's over-sexed, outrageously treacherous and yet somehow sympathetic sister Eduige, while countertenor Hugh Cutting as Bertarido's louche, chain-smoking friend Unolfo was by far the most interesting person dramatically. He came over as a Handelian Puck – entertainingly amoral and mischievous. On stage, this Rodelinda made for a bit of a curate's egg. But down in the orchestral pit, the English Concert and their musical director Peter Whelan brought Handel's fabulous score to life in a performance of surpassing rhythmic energy, richly dramatic colouring and heart-breaking lyrical grace.
