I think my love/hate relationship with Händel stems from the fact that during my early days as an operagoer there simply wasn’t any to hear.  Aside from a hash made of Giulio Cesare (and one really went only to hear Beverly Sills sing the arias) and, I think, Alcina (all I remember is the set looked like the disco in Saturday Night Fever) at New York City Opera, his music was an unknown quantity for me. 

A major change happened in 1984 when the Met gave its first Händel opera: Rinaldo.  Now Händel is everywhere, especially at my neighborhood opera house, Theater an der Wien, which gives at least one Händel opera a year.  I am still suffering from lack of familiarity: it basically all sounds the same to me.

I groan when I see another unknown Händel opera on the Spielplan, dutifully get a ticket, and am then (usually) transported by the beauty.  But those endless da capo arias and kilometers of recitative—not to mention the Wagnerian length of some of these operas—are not pleasing to my ears (or butt).

I was positive I had seen Rinaldo at Theater an der Wien within the last few seasons, but, despite that it was given twice (once fully staged at Kammeroper and once in concert), I can’t find any evidence that I actually attended.  Anyway, in researching this week’s upload—a one-night-only concert starring Ewa Podles, Cecilia Bartoli and Gerald Finley—it seems that Händel kept changing the content, often recycling his own music, and there are now too many editions to count.

I shall listen, sigh at the occasional aria, but it really isn’t my stuff.  So this goes out to all the Baroque music fans at Parterre with more patience and refined tastes than I.

Georg Friederich Händel: Rinaldo

Academy of Ancient Music
Christopher Hogwood, conductor
Théâtre des Champs Elysées
6 January 1999

Rinaldo: Ewa Podles
Almirena: Cecilia Bartoli
Goffredo: Hilary Summers
Eustasio: Daniel Taylor
Argante: Gerald Finley
Armida: Maria Constanza Nocentini
Mago / Araldo: Robin Blaze
Donna / Siren: Rachel Elliot