Garsington Opera
****
This is a superbly sung Handel, the drama full of fire, with the complicated baroque story given a clean and stylised theatrical telling.
Rodelinda may be a tangled tapestry of dynastic plots, romantic fidelity, and moral reckonings, but at Garsington this summer, the ensemble of exquisite voices cut through the intrigue with electrifying clarity.
Handel’s 1725 gem Rodelinda is basically the story of the seemingly widowed queen Rodelinda, a captive lioness mourning what she believes is her husband’s death and clawing to shield both herself and her young son from the murdering usurper Grimoaldo, who demands her hand. Meanwhile, the not so dead King Bertarido, waits and watches with his ally Unulfo for company, brooding on when to reveal to his wife he is alive and reclaim his crown. In the background we have the king’s sister Eduige with her own love and dynastic dilemmas – and adding to the intrigue an arch baddie balanced by a winged goodie.
At the heart of the success of this performance is soprano Lucy Crowe, singing the title role with a blend of fearless technical command and emotional intelligence. She owns the role and deserves the enthusiastic curtain call. Handel’s ornamented vocal lines hold no terrors for her; her ease in the upper register is striking, but it’s the sense of inner strength she brings to Rodelinda’s steadfastness that gives the role real weight. Whether defiant or anguished, Crowe communicates with a directness that’s profoundly moving.
Tim Mead
As her husband, the usurped king Bertarido, countertenor Tim Mead’s performance blossomed into one of real poignancy. He balances the need to portray a character driven by loyalty and quiet determination, but also aware of his own suspicions, voice warm and supple in the long-breathed laments Handel gives him.
Tenor Ed Lyon, above, makes an unusually sympathetic Grimoaldo, given lots of humour although whether always intentional is not so clear. Though undeniably villainous – he usurps the throne and causes all of the bloodshed, after all – Lyon shades the role with anxiety and longing, and his singing combines clarity with an actor’s sensitivity to line and text. He also gets the zaniest vast cloak costume although Tim Mead’s golden wonder outfit runs a close second.
A real delight throughout the performance was the mezzo Marvic Monreal, as Eduige, (above) bringing flair and vocal boldness to a character torn between political pragmatism and emotional confusion. It’s a strong, grounded performance with some gorgeous lower notes.
Also a delight was
Brandon Cedel sang a Garibaldo who projected menace with muscular tone and villainy that never lapses into caricature. I am sure we are not really meant to be sorry to see him dispatched by Rodelinda.
The evening’s second counter tenor Hugh Cutting, is all elegance as the noble Unulfo, although I would recommend cutting down on the cigarettes even if they seem to have some magical properties on the black-clad, gold-masked splendid dancers. Maybe he had been secretly sipping Red Bull rather than pig’s blood because at the end he sprouted wings.
The English Concert, under Peter Whelan, delivers a stylish account of the score, including period-instrument. This is a taut, energetic reading of Handel’s score that is full of nuance. Whelan draws out the score’s variety, allowing moments of intimacy to bloom without losing momentum elsewhere. The continuo team, in particular, deserves praise for providing an expressive and dramatic harmonic foundation.
Ruth Knight’s production, in collaboration with designer Leslie Travers, takes place in a metal two-level set on which the gold-costumed (this is the dominant style for the costumes) observe each other and move from scene to scene. It begins with the three kingdoms as flourishing “boxes” on the platform with verdant trees but by the final act all has been turned to ash. Rather predictably, the opera ends the young prince planting a sapling to demonstrate the return of order and new life.
The dramatic highpoint of the staging is a restaurant bar brought to centre stage. A menacing knife-adoring chef has butchered a pig whose head is Salome-like kissed by Eduige. Later the pig’s heart is squeezed out and the blood drunk out of a wine glass. Great stuff.
With those excellent dancers cleverly choreographed to be dark souls that move with what is a cross between Ninja warrior and horror film soul collecting fiends.
This adds to the staging which is highly stylised which helps communicate Handel’s straightforward morality tale.
Until July 19
Images by Craig Fuller
Interview with Jack Furness and Sam Furness, Garsington Opera’s Queen of Spades:
https://operascene.co.uk/tag/sam-furness
Other Garsington reviews:
