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Drama and the queen London
Barbican
02/01/2006 -
George Frideric Handel: Rodelinda
Emma Bell (Rodelinda), Sonia Prina (Bertarido), Filippo Adami (Grimoaldo), Romina Basso (Eduige), Hilary Summers (Unolfo), Vito Priante (Garibaldo)
Il Complesso Barocco, Alan Curtis (conductor)
Rodelinda isn’t exactly a rarity these days, partly perhaps because the title role -- a bereft but faithlful queen beseiged emotionally and politically by an evil usurper -- has diva potential, and also because it has one famous tune, Dove sei, and a showstopping duet at the end of the second act. Glyndebourne’s sepia-movie production caught much of the opera’s dramatic tone and ambivalence between camp and romance, but, following Peter Sellars’ unmatchable Theodora out of the Handel stable, it doesn’t seem to have caught audiences’ imaginations enough to make the opera a standard. In some ways, Rodelinda might be more at home as minor repertoire suitable for visiting glamorous sopranos at the Met, where it was produced last year. Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco recorded it recently, without an associated production, and this performance, the concert of the CD, had some musical pleasures, and one tour de force, but somehow lacked drama that a staging in the background might have added.
Curtis’ discovery of early opera began, amazingly, in the 1960s, which makes him a coeval of Raymond Leppard, and he founded his band, Il Complesso Barocco, in 1992, long after William Christie started Les Arts Florissants but well ahead of the wave. Curtis's work seems to fall somewhere between that of Leppard and Christie. Leppard did incredible amounts of spade work to make unknown, unedited works performable and understandable, and audiences enjoyed the amazing newness of Poppea and Calisto, even though many aspects of Leppard's performances from the 1970s seem old hat; Christie has developed a style of baroque bravura to often sublime heights, without sweating historical details that don't contribute to the impact of the works for modern audiences. Curtis gets beyond the bare bones, but he keeps some substance in the style. Some find his work, and found this performance, rewardingly faithful and unshowy, though others might say "dull".
The overture was marked with some drastic gestures, but once the singers got going Curtis' main aim seemed to be narrative and emotional clarity, which might not be enough to carry a work that is probably well made rather than brilliant. Emma Bell, who first sang the title role in 2001 at Glyndebourne and now practically owns it, justified the concert on her own, and provided a powerful focus for the drama. Sonia Prina sang Bertarido with a fine rich voice and exhilarating coloratura, but (as well as being considerably shorter than Bell), she seemed too cute and lacking in swagger to carry off a staged performance. Romina Basso was an alluring Edwige, close to batty enough before she came round to the good guys, and Hilary Summers was a jolly Unulfo, endearing but not comic. Filippo Adami, a last-minute substitute, as Grimoaldo, sang as if he were in La Bohème, although with enjoyeable sweetness -- he didn't seem at all evil or, in the last act, mad. Vito Priante's Garibaldo, in contrast, was a touch young and good looking but otherwise a fine, butch thug villain with an alluring voice and robust but accurate singing that made his seduction of Edwige convincing.
HE Elsom
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