Handel - Rodelinda (Harry Bicket, Renée Fleming, Andreas Scholl) [2012]

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Handel - Rodelinda (Harry Bicket, Renée Fleming, Andreas Scholl) [2012]

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. . . vocal subtleties achieve their own high definition, and we can better appreciate the period theorbo and recorders that conductor Harry Bicket adds for flavoring in the pit. Via this medium, characters give every sign of communicating with one another, while the producer's agile camera focuses tightly on individual expressions to register the characterizations that are so crucial to Baroque opera's theater of personality. It also helps that this matinée in December 2011 finds Renée Fleming, as Rodelinda, and countertenor Andreas Scholl, as the deposed king Bertarido, in stronger vocal form than when the revival opened a month earlier. The soprano invests her high-speed passagework with convincing venom in arias such as "Morrai, sì" and, when the occasion demands, spins a subtle line, easing effortlessly in and out of trills . . . Her portrayal of the attractive, frantic heroine has matured to include moments of regal composure . . . With his poised legato and an idiosyncratic mix of bright and shadowy timbre, Scholl masterfully shapes the hero's mournful "Dove sei, amato bene?" and "Con rauco mormorio" . . . Joseph Kaiser, in the tenor role of Grimoaldo, and countertenor Iestyn Davies, as Unulfo, are welcome newcomers to the cast, while mezzo Stephanie Blythe repeats her effortlessly commanding Eduige . . . [Bicket's conducting is] cultivated and eloquent . . . [Stephen Wadsworth's] production is as telegenic as at the 2004 premiere, cinematic in its fluid use of revolving and elevator stages and refreshing in its focus on storytelling rather than conceptual novelty. David J. Baker, Opera News

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Handel - Rodelinda (Harry Bicket, Renée Fleming, Andreas Scholl) [2012]

Close