Rodelinda's missing link
Post categories: Suzanne Aspden
| 00:09 UK time, Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Handel's : what a fabulous opera! Rodelinda is the archetypal operatic (and Handelian) strong woman, defiant in the face of all sorts of threats and attempted seduction by Grimoaldo (and Garibaldo), and faithful to her husband. Perhaps the attractiveness of the title role explains the frequency with which the opera is produced today, though it's Rodelinda's husband, Bertarido, who has the most famous aria in the opera, the Act I 'Dove sei'.
If you missed last week's broadcasts on Radio 3 (Thursday and Friday), there's still time to catch it on the iPlayer. It's an interesting recording because it uses the recent critical edition by Andrew Jones. But it's not entirely faithful: Jones has found that the haunting link between recitative and aria in 'Dove sei' should be omitted - it would take a brave director indeed to follow that instruction, and certainly does not do so!
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