Handel/leo

Rinaldo (DVD)

Teresa Iervolino, Carmela Remigio, Francisco Fernández-rueda, Loriana Castellano, Francesca Ascioti, Dara Savinova; Orchestra La Scintilla/ Fabio Luisi; dir. Giorgio Sangati Dynamic DVD: 37831;

Blu-ray: 57831 216 mins

Following its

1711 London premiere, Rinaldo was known as a triumph not just of Handel, but of the singer in its title role, the castrato Nicola Grimaldi. To celebrate

Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI’S birthday in 1718, a new Rinaldo was forged in Naples. This combined Handel’s music, given exclusively to Grimaldi, with arias by various hands – Leo, Porta, Sarro, Orandini, Gasparini, Bononcini – for which Grimaldi’s fellow cast members of 1718 were already known. The action from Handel’s 1711 opera was altered only a little: Rinaldo, leading a battle to eject the Saracen occupiers of Jerusalem, resists seduction by the sorceress Alcina, whose aid the Saracen king Argante has procured. After a climactic battle, Rinaldo unites with his beloved Almirena, who meanwhile has withstood imprisonment by Alcina, courtship by Argante, and Rinaldo’s suspicion of her infidelity.

As Rinaldo, Teresa Iervolino seizes the advantage of being the only singer of Handel’s original arias, storming recklessly through her coloratura to thrilling effect. She’s equally incandescent in the new setting of ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ – music not originally Rinaldo’s, but grabbed by Grimaldi in 1718. Other soloists manoeuvre deftly to add interest to their thinner scores: as Almirena, Loriana Castellano gorgeously drapes her music in ornaments and warm timbres. They also tend to over-sing. Carmela Remigio, as Armida, becomes progressively more vibrato-heavy and dramatically incoherent as the work progresses.

The production, by stage director Giorgio Sangati for Puglia’s summer festival, works against both the score and the sensitivity of conductor Fabio Luisi: Sgt. Pepper coats, glam-rock sunglasses and face painting undercut affective impact. Soloists perform major arias in darkness, sets are static, and the slow-motion fencing of the final battle looks like amateur dramatics. The sound quality is decent, but the film editing doesn’t always sync with the score. Indeed this performance may have been better served by sound recording only.

Berta Joncus

PERFORMANCE ★★★

PICTURE & SOUND ★★★