Rinaldo (complete opera)

G:

Widescreen 16:9 - PCM Stereo / Dolby Diigtal 5.1 Surround / DTS 5.1 Surround - Colour - 217 Minutes (total) - PAL

Includes:
-Handel, the Entertainer: Featurette
-Arthaus Musik trailer

Opera Seria in Three Acts / Sung in Italian

"The recording is excellent, with a choice of surround-sound tracks; but newcomers will find the action incomprehensible, especially from the miserable synopsis, and would do better to start with Hogwood."
(Gramophone)

"David Alden's new production of Rinaldo was a riot from beginning to end, brilliantly designed by Paul Steinberg and Buki Shiff. The singing was fabulous: David Daniels on top form as Rinaldo; Noëmi Nadelmann as a whizzbang Armida; Egils Silins, the only 'broken' male voice, as Argante. The other American counter-tenor, David Walker (Goffredo), made sure Daniels had plenty of competition...A great and representative show."
-The Times

"Handel rose to every challenge when setting the libretto of Rinaldo, and threw down the gauntlet not only to anyone singing the work but also staging it. The première was reported by The Spectator on 6 March 1711 as being 'filled with Thunder and Lightning, Illuminations and Fireworks.

Munich, then, needed a similarly explosive production for the local première of the work at the Prinzregentstheater and entrusted the task to David Alden to direct. Thankfully Alden has the knack of making a potentially stolid story scintillating, and also of unfolding it clearly and relatively logically (libretto allowing). He also provided us with all the special effects we craved…. nailed the work down solidly with a series of wonderfully arresting images. The opera was given time to breath; there were moments of exquisite repose for arias before the stage burst into life again. Armida astride her pet Hydra being a particularly fabulous show-stopper.

We had all the visual fizz required, and thankfully the vocal fireworks to match. Perhaps it is invidious to single David Daniels out, but his Rinaldo was surely the equal of his illustrious 18th-century predecessors. His countertenor is one of the most accomplished voices I have heard... As Armida, Noëmi Nadelmann's voices started where her legs ended, and she threw coloratura at us as though it was going out of fashion. David Walker as Goffredo was no vocal slouch either, his voice brighter edged than Daniels', and almost as fluent. Harry Bicket led from the harpsichord and conjured his own miracles from the pit. He looked quite overwhelmed at the screams of approval that met everybody at curtain call."
-Opera Now

Cast:
David Walker, Deborah York, David Daniels, Axel Köhler, Eglis Silins, Noëmi Nadelmann, Charles Maxwell, Deborah York

Orchestra, Chorus:
The Bavarian State Orchestra