Sunday, 2nd March
What better way to start this blog than with Rodelinda at ENO. I first heard Rodelinda in 1999 in a BBC broadcast from Glyndebourne. Not knowing much about opera at the time, I was oblivious to the impressive line-up of Andreas Scholl, Anna Caterina Antonacci, William Christie and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. But I loved the music and especially loved Andreas Scholl's countertenor voice, a voice I had never really heard before.
So when my husband and I were looking for an opera to go to as a belated Valentine's day outing, Rodelinda seemed ideal. It was only when we looked up the plot to refresh our memories that we realised that ENO had a tough act to follow. Nevertheless husband is a big fan of Richard Jones so hopes were high.
Richard Jones has set the opera in a version of 1950s fascist Milan and the production had a verismo feel with fully imagined characters, getting past some of the loopiness of the plot with black humour. Richard Jones introduces a clever tattooing motif whereby the characters
declare their loyalty, unwisely in the case of Grimualdo and Eduige.
Noticeably only Rodelinda remains without a tattoo, she has no need as
her singularly her loyalty is never in doubt. The multi-roomed set as well as some nifty use of treadmills meant there was a lot of action while Handel can be sometimes very dull as everyone stands motionless for an aria.
The heavily monitored prison cell was equally reminiscent of the work of any number of recently deposed Arab dictators. Slowly it became clear that Grimualdo lacked some of the necessary ruthlessness to be a dictator, while the deposed Bertarido and Rodelinda were not entirely innocent victims but capable of some serious political power plays themselves. The non-singing part of their son, was cleverly cast as a young adult rather than a small boy, which opened up much more opportunity for characterization; instead of having Rodelinda as the pure mother of a small boy, we now had her as a political powerhouse and her son as an increasingly threatening and violent force - again making you think of recent dictators' sons rather than an innocent child. Cleverly the ending was twisted as it was clear two people as clever and determined as Rodelinda and Bertarido were never going to kiss and make up with Grimualdo and the endlessly plotting Eduige.
Singing wise, the Colisseum is not the kindest venue to singers and some of the voices were lost in the void between the stage and our seats in the Upper Circle. However the superb voice of Iestyn Davies was clear and moving throughout. Rebecca Evans as Rodelinda was excellent and their voices blended perfectly in their sad duet when they are separated at the end of Act 2. Cleverly at this point the set separated as well, heightening their isolation from each other. The whole cast was strong, with excellent performances from all.
So how did this compare to the original opera I fell in love with? Well the opera has it's flaws in the plot which the production coped with well but is well deserving of being performed more often, not least because of the roles of Rodelinda and Eduige are remarkably modern - no 19th century one dimensional suicides here, these are women in charge of their own lives. A week later I'm still thinking about the opera, and the amazing voices of Iestyn Davies and Rebecca Evans. The Glyndebourne Rodelinda is available on youtube - I watched it again and have to say, ENO was much better and I may have found a new countertenor to fall in love with.
