Programs · Episode

HANDEL: Rodelinda

Program: At the Opera
Aired: Saturday, March 23, 2024 @ 6:00 pm
Hosted by Lisa Simeone

Handel wrote Rodelinda for a premiere in London, in 1725, in a highly-anticipated production featuring some of the greatest singers of the time.  At the Opera presents the drama in two recordings each featuring world-class casts of their own. In one, Alan Curtis leads the ensemble Il Complesso Barocco, and in the other Nicholas Kraemer leads the Raglan Baroque Players. The opera itself portrays a strong-willed wife who risks her own life to protect her family, as her exiled husband struggles to find a way back to them.

MORE ABOUT THE OPERA:

When South Korean director Bong Joon Ho’s film Parasite became the first film not in the English language to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, it was praised for the diversity of its appeal, and lauded for heralding a brand new era of truly global entertainment. 

Yet there was an opera composer whose works could easily have made a similar claim to fame – nearly 300 years ago! — and ironically, his music also makes an appearance in Parasite. The film’s evocative, original score is by composer Jung Jae-il.  But at a couple of the movie’s key moments, we hear something very different:  arias from George Frideric Handel’s opera, Rodelinda.

If there was ever a genuinely multi-cultural creative artist, it was Handel.  He was a German-born composer who made his fortune — and it was a big one — writing and staging Italian operas in London.

Handel appeared on the English opera scene early in the 18^th century, and over a period of 30 years or so became one of the country's true, musical superstars.  He produced hit after hit using the same reliable formula:  writing Italian-language operas for eager, English-speaking audiences.

Between 1711 and 1742, Handel wrote more than three dozen operas in London – an impressive run.  But during one period of just a single year he outdid himself.  In 1724 and ‘25, Handel wrote three operas that are among the best he ever composed, which in turn makes them some of the best operas anyone ever composed:  Tamerlano, Julius Caesar, and the one that’s featured both in Parasite and here – Rodelinda.

On At the Opera, host Lisa Simeone takes us through Handel’s drama with extended excerpts from two recordings that take the “authentic” approach to performing Baroque opera, and both with world-class casts.  One is led by Christopher Hogwood, with the Academy of Ancient Music.  The other features the Raglan Baroque players, led by Nicholas Kraemer. 

FEATURED RECORDINGS:

Il Complesso Barocco; Alan Curtis, conductor

CAST:  Simone Kermes (Rodelinda); Mirijana Mijanovic (Bertarido); Steve Davislim (Grimoaldo); Sonia Prina (Eduige); Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Unulfo); Vito Priante (Garibaldo)
(Archiv 4775391)

Raglan Baroque Players; Nicholas Kraemer, conductor

CAST:  Sophie Daneman (Rodelinda); Daniel Taylor (Bertarido); Adrian Thompson (Grimoaldo); Catherine Robbin (Eduige); Robin Blaze (Unulfo); Christopher Purves (Garibaldo)
(Virgin Veritas 5 45277)

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