Cambridge Independent review of Rodelinda

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Review of Handel's Rodelinda

6 April 2018

Productions of Handel’s operas don’t get much better than this one.

The uniformly brilliant cast and accomplished period orchestra in this beautiful performance created a magical weld, truly a “fusion of music and stage” in the Company’s own terms. The stage sets, managing somehow to be at once sumptuous and spare, were a striking scarlet and black; costumes and lighting effects visually arresting.

Operas of this kind consist mainly of a series of solo arias allotted to each of the prominent cast members, space unfortunately forbidding a detailed rehearsal of the high points in this lengthy (more than three hours) sequence, but there were many. The contributions of Rodelinda (Alice Privett), Garibaldo (Nicholas Morris), Grimoaldo (William Wallace), Bertarido (William Towers) and Eduige (Ida Ranzlov) were all absolutely outstanding.

Artistic director, Julian Perkins, conducted the orchestra from the harpsichord, where the beauty of Handel’s score, his ear for sonority, his potent gaps and silences between pieces of music, his changes of texture, were allowed to amaze us all over again.

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American Handel Society review of Rodelinda

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Review of Handel's Rodelinda

6 April 2018

Performed in an English translation by Andrew Jones with some adaptions, the diction was excellent. Wallace, in the role of Grimoaldo, came fully into his own. Although Ahasverus (in Esther) and Grimoaldo are similar roles, portraying a king badly served by an evil, self-serving minister, only in the longer Rodelinda does the character get the chance to reflect upon his actions. In fact, the mirrors on the stage seemed to point specifically to the need for reflection and self-awareness among all the characters. Nicholas Morris (bass) played the evil minister Garibaldo with single-minded precision: at one point he physically moved Grimoaldo across the stage in an attempt to make him behave in cruel fashion. I’ve probably seen more theatrical productions of Rodelinda than any Handel opera, but I’ve never seen the character of Eduige (sung by Ida Ränzlöv) so fully inhabit her early role as one of the co-conspirators with Grimoaldo in the downfall of her brother Bertarido and then, regretting her earlier actions, join with Rodelinda to effect his restitution. Rodelinda (Privett) was regal and fearless in her dealings with Grimoaldo and Garibaldo, while Bertarido (played by countertenor William Towers) made poor decisions, jumped to false conclusions, and needed to be guided in his actions by his friend Unulfo.

…the musical highlight of my entire week, however, was the messa di voce with which Towers, as Bertarido, began his first aria, ”Dov’è sei” (”Oh, where are you”). Beginning pianissimo, Towers made a slow crescendo, never losing the purity of the note, and then, miraculously, an equally long decrescendo back to the original volume, and still without a break, continued the full phrase to the end. I was not expecting this, and time seemed to stand still.

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Opera Now review of Rodelinda

News and Reviews

Review of Handel's Rodelinda

6 April 2018

Director Max Hoehn’s production was worthy of one of the highest accolades, in my book; namely, being so effective in its simplicity as almost not to be noticed. Black predominated throughout, with carefully placed swathes of scarlet; the effect was deliberately oppressive on the eyes, which rendered all the more effective the moments when changes of colour were introduced. Gestures and movement had clear overtones of baroque stagecraft, while remaining unaffected and natural…

I ought not to conclude without saying that the performance was given in English (without surtitles), in a translation based on one by AVJ [Dr Andrew Jones] – but the fact that I have left this revelation to the very end signifies how untroubling the performance language was in the face of such a direct, powerful production.

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Classical Music review of Rodelinda

News and Reviews

Review of Handel's Rodelinda

6 April 2018

The young cast – hand-picked by Perkins, who led the medium-sized orchestra (half of whom were undergraduate or postgraduate students, playing alongside established professionals) from the harpsichord with verve and suavity – could scarcely have been bettered. As Rodelinda, soprano Alice Privett gave a complete performance that showed why the opera deserves to be named for her character even if others hog the limelight; she turned from forlorn to venom-spitting (and back again, several times over) on a sixpence, also skilfully manipulating her vocal heft to match.

Mezzo-soprano Ida Ränzlöv (Eduige), bass Nick Morris (Garibaldo), and countertenor Tom Scott-Cowell (Unulfo) all played their characterful part in the intricacies and intrigues of the plot, but the stand-out performance came from tenor William Wallace as Grimoaldo; as the winner of the 2016 Handel Singing Competition his pedigree was not in doubt, but the nonchalant ease with which he handled the vocal demands – ranging from pyrotechnic to plaintive to possessed – of the role, while also giving a full-blooded dramatic performance, was nothing short of breath-taking.

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