Santa Fe Opera: Handel in Half-light

Although the Santa Fe Opera has never shied away from popular favourites, some of their most rewarding productions have been devoted to lesser-performed works from all corners of the operatic canon; and while the operas of Handel may not seem ideally geared to a summer festival audience in search of easy entertainment, a total of seven of his operas have appeared on the Santa Fe stage since the mid-1980s. If this season’s Rodelinda – the first new Handel production since the delightful Alcina in 2017 – struggled to find a way into Nicola Francesco Haym’s loosely woven drama, a handful of fine voices and the consistently vigorous musical direction of Harry Bicket offer a compelling entry into the singular musical landscape of early eighteenth-century opera.

In both its plot and characters Rodelinda is reasonably typical of its time and…