Opera Scotland

Rodelinda in Scotland

Posted 18 Sep 2013

Rodelinda was first performed in Scotland on 24 July 1992, one of three semi-staged performances in period costume forming part of a Handel festival at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh. The lead roles of Rodelinda and her exiled husband Bertarido were played by Rebecca Evans and Michael Chance. The conductor was David Roblou.

In July 2000, a single staged performance was given at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre by the Dublin-based Opera Theatre Company as part of a UK tour.  The conductor was Laurence Cummings with Helen Williams as Rodelinda and Jonathan Peter Kenny as Bertarido.  These productions were both extremely simple and small scale and were recent enough to have been informed by research into authentic style.

Rodelinda was recognised as an important work in the centuries after Handel's death largely because it contained several arias which gained independent life.  Perhaps the most admired of all Handel's operas, Rodelinda remains largely unknown in Scotland.  Scottish Opera's new production should reverse that situation.

We hope to feature Handel's operas more in future, and plan to write about the pioneering performances at Ledlanet Nights and by Edinburgh University Opera.