Offer,Handel/Leo: Rinaldo

Teresa Iervolino (Rinaldo), Carmela Remigio (Armida), Loriana Castellano (Almirena), Francisco Fernández-Rueda (Goffredo), Francesca Ascioti (Argante), Ana Victória Pitts (A Christian Magician), Dara Savinova (Eustazio)

Ensemble La Scintilla, Fabio Luisi (conductor) & Giorgio Sangati (director)

Sangati’s staging, mixing (vaguely) 18th-century costumes, Venice carnival masks and modernist camp, is unpretentious and uncluttered. The substitute arias, often short-breathed, cannot rival... — Gramophone Magazine, June 2019 More…

Release Date: 12th Apr 2019
Catalogue No: 37831
Label: Dynamic

Gramophone Magazine

June 2019

DVD/Blu-ray of the Month

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Early Music - up to 35% off selected titles

Special offer ends: 04/06/2024

Other available formats

Handel: Rinaldo

Teresa Iervolino (Rinaldo), Carmela Remigio (Armida), Loriana Castellano (Almirena), Francisco Fernández-Rueda (Goffredo), Francesca Ascioti (Argante), Ana Victória Pitts (A Christian Magician), Dara Savinova (Eustazio)
Ensemble La Scintilla
Fabio Luisi (conductor) & Giorgio Sangati (director)

About
Reviews
Videos
Explore

About

Presented by the Festival della Valle d’Itria, this is the first modern-day staging of Leonardo Leo’s Neapolitan revision of Handel’s Rinaldo, a pastiche with a Mediterranean allure, which was composed in 1718 but considered lost until a few years ago. The story behind this rare opera is fascinating: the score of Handel’s masterpiece was brought illegally to Naples by the castrato singer Nicolò Grimaldi, who had performed Rinaldo in London. Once in Italy, the work was given a makeover by local composers, including Leo, who adapted it to the taste of the Neapolitan public, adding intermezzos and amusing characters. Director Giorgio Sangati has transformed Leo’s revision into a ‘ba-rock’ opera set in the 1980s, where the struggle between Christians and Turks is re-imagined as a battle between pop-rock singers (the Christians) and heavy-metal performers (the Turks). The two factions represent opposite perspectives on life and love. Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the Ensemble La Scintilla, a group of specialists in Baroque repertoire.

Reviews

June 2019

Sangati’s staging, mixing (vaguely) 18th-century costumes, Venice carnival masks and modernist camp, is unpretentious and uncluttered. The substitute arias, often short-breathed, cannot rival Handel’s energy and melodic breadth, and a few outstay their welcome. But they are effective enough… Luisi judges tempo and character well and gets spruce playing from his band…. Just don’t expect more than a smattering of Handel.

September 2019

Hardline Handelians will probably dismiss Leo’s adaptation as a travesty…Nevertheless, those fascinated by 18th-century operatic convention and history will find much here to intrigue them.

Videos

An error occurred.

Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.

Offer,Handel/Leo: Rinaldo

Contents

Download queue

Offer,Handel/Leo: Rinaldo

2 DVD Videos

Other available formats

Contents

Download queue