Rodelinda

What makes Handel’s opera Rodelinda - the only baroque opera of the season - such a popular favourite? In arias suffused with grief, bitter yearning and joy, her story speaks to our imaginations and draws us into her dilemma. What would you do, faced with a choice between loyalty and power?

Plot

The plot of Rodelinda is fuelled by the intrigues surrounding the supposed death of King Bertarido and the resulting love and power vacuum. Beset on all sides, his wife and widow Rodelinda must choose whether to risk remaining loyal to her dead husband, or to save herself by siding with her enemy Grimoaldo. In the end, she chooses loyalty, even at the cost of her son’s life.

Flavio

Rodelinda's son Flavio plays an important role in this staging. Through his eyes we look at the events, giving the opera a more psychological layering. Imagination and reality are intertwined here. His masks and drawings form his escape from reality and evoke a ghostly atmosphere.  

Set - no escape

In German director Claus Guth’s staging of Rodelinda, the family tragedy unfolds in a vast house, a black box with white stairways going up and down. In this oppressive setting, with no means of escape, the intrigue and power games become almost unbearable.

Team and cast

Riccardo Minasi is an acclaimed Italian violist and has been chief conductor of the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg since 2017. For his DNO debut, he leads Concerto Köln, one of the world’s leading Baroque music ensembles. 

Claus Guth’s success is rooted in a meticulous preparatory analysis of form and content paired with a strong intuition for what works on stage. In Amsterdam, he previously directed the enthusiastically received productions of Un ballo in maschera, Jephtha and Don Giovanni.

Singing the title role of Rodelinda is soprano Lucy Crowe in her Dutch National Opera debut, joined by world-class countertenors Bejun Mehta, in the role of Bertarido, and Lawrence Zazzo, as Unulfo.