Opera Review ‘Rodelinda’ hits the high notes

By Joseph Hurley

RODELINDA, by George Frideric Handel. Opera Theatre Company of Ireland at BAM Harvey Theater. Director: James Conway.

When George Frideric Handel’s six-character baroque opera, "Rodelinda," premiered at the King’s Theatre in London’s Haymarket district in February 1725, it was the occasion of one of those scabrous little anecdotes that stubbornly refuses to die.

At one point midway through the performance, the story goes, Francesca Cuzzoni, the soprano singing the title role, and Anna Vincenzo, the evening’s alto, got into a shoving match in which their wigs became entangled, requiring the lowering of the curtain and a lengthy pause until matters were sorted out.

Despite this disruption, "Rodelinda" was declared a success, so much so that after 13 performances in the spring season, it was revived for eight further repetitions on the schedule for the following winter.

When the Dublin-based Opera Theatre Company of Ireland made its first visit to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, it was March of 1997, and the work they brought with them was an even more obscure example of the German-born English composer’s skill at creating what might best be termed chamber opera. The opera then was "Amadigi," which had premiered on the same British stage on May 25, 1715, almost exactly a full decade before "Rodelinda" was first heard.

The Opera Theatre Company of Ireland recently returned to Brooklyn for a four-performance run of its production of "Rodelinda," playing in the same space where the troupe had appeared.

The Opera Theatre Company of Ireland now, as it did on its last visit, has the advantage of the services of one of the world’s most outstanding countertenors. Jonathan Peter Kenny, who ranks alongside the best of the breed in contemporary music, names like David Daniels, Daniel Taylor, David Walker, Brian Asawa and Bejun Mehta.

Kenny, who sang the title role in "Amadigi," on the troupe’s initial visit to BAM, this time played Bertarido, self-banished heir to a mythical kingdom, goes into hiding to protect his wife, Rodelinda, and the couple’s son, Flavio, from the dangers of the lethal intrigue which is engulfing the court.

"Rodelinda," an example of the form technically known as opera seria, has three characters who could be called villainous, but, unusual in any category of dramatic opera, chalks up only one fatality, specifically the evil, scheming Garibaldo, well sung on the Irish production by Charles Johnston.

At the opera’s conclusion, Rodelinda, brilliantly performed by soprano Helen Williams, is reunited with her husband, and even the work’s two surviving semi-villains, Grimoaldo and Edwige, who happens to be the hero’s ambitious sister, have experienced changes of heart and emerged as at least tolerably virtuous individuals.

Grimoaldo and Edwige, in the Opera Theatre production, directed by the troupe’s artistic director, James Conway, and conducted by harpsichordist Laurence Cummings, were skillfully and subtly handled by, respectively, Iain Paton and Yvonne Howard.

For "Amadigi," the Opera Theatre Company of Ireland performed with the 12-member London Baroque Sinfonia. For "Rodelinda," the troupe collaborated with performing artists from the New York Collegium, one of America’s best-known baroque instrumental organizations, some of whose members have been working together for more than 20 years.