So Bertarido is a king, of somewhere-or-other, only his throne has been usurped by Grimoaldo, a duke of somewhere-or-other, taking Rodelinda, Bertarido's wife, prisoner. Grimoaldo hopes to marry Rodelinda (even though he'd previously been involved with her sister-in-law, Eduige), since Bertarido is thought to be dead. But surprise twist! He's not. And with the aid of the loyal counsellor Unulfo, Eduige and Rodelinda are able to restore him to the throne and kill the evil counsellor Garibaldo and Grimoaldo regrets his ways and gets back together with Eduige and is forgiven and truly everyone is happy.
There's something about a story like this that I really appreciate. In what world, you might ask, would Grimoaldo not only be allowed to live following a failed coup like this, but not be punished in any way? It's a forgiving world where people are basically good (except, you know, the one bad guy) and everything just works out. I know it's a fantasy, but it is aspirational for me (and absolutely no comparison to the current situation should be made; ITMFA). It's just a nice story--although there was one part I thought was a little dubious, where Rodelinda says she's marry Grimoaldo, only there's one condition: he has to murder her young son in cold blood, here and now. To show what this is all really about. And you have to figure that she must realize that he's not bad enough to actually do that; otherwise she just comes across as monstrous. But boy, there isn't any indication of that, and even if it isthe plan, christ, lady, you are traumatizing the hell out of the kid here. But otherwise, it was smooth sailing. And Handel's music...well, you know what it sounds like, and if you like it, you'll like this, and I do and I did.
I feel like I'm actually understanding more about the evolution of opera lately. So the thing about these early baroque operas, as I understand it, is that they were really, really favoring the singing over plot. That's why you have characters repeating the same lines over and over, and so much room for vocal embellishment. There was a reaction against this which was spearheaded by Gluck, leading directly to Mozart, and from there to Bel Canto guys like Donizetti and Rossini and thence Verdi and Wagner. Correct me if I'm mangling any of this. But point being: baroque operas weren't performed that much until recently, and the reason is that the staging is so static that it's hard to know what to do with it, given contemporary aesthetics. The solution--certainly in the three Handel operas I've seen--is to add a lot of stage action so as to make it seem like you're not just repeating the same lines over and over. Even though you are. And, well, it works. This production, by Stephen Wadsworth, is a period piece, but with very elaborate sets allowing for a level of dynamism that a less fancy staging wouldn't be able to manage, and choreography to match. Renée Fleming plays the title character, and hey, what's to complain about? STEPHANIE FUCKING BLYTHE is Eduige; I'd never seen her in a romantic role before, and I'm glad she's able to do that, and well. I also really liked tenor Joseph Kaiser as the not-actually-evil usurper. Bertarido and Unulfo are played by countertenors, Andreas Scholl and Iestyn Davies, and they're fine in the context, though I have to admit, I'm not sure I've one hundred percent wrapped my brain around countertenors as a concept yet.
As usual, I don't have a pithy way to end this, other than to say that I think--LOOK BEHIND YOU! *smoke bomb*
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