George Frideric Handel’s Rinaldo (1711) unfolds here as a playful and magical opera where imagination reshapes reality. The production begins in a stark, realistic white box: a room inhabited by Rinaldo himself, surrounded by the musical scores on his desk. As he falls asleep while studying, the boundaries of the space begin to dissolve and the opera emerges from his dreams. From within this quiet room, the fantastical world of Rinaldo gradually appears. Characters peek curiously over the walls, and Argante makes his unexpected entrance through a small opening in the set, climbing in on a bright blue ladder. Rinaldo’s scattered sheets of music transform into paper boats that carry him across imagined seas to the magical island of the sorceress Armida, where he seeks to rescue his beloved Almirena. As the dream deepens, the rigid white walls break apart and fly outward, revealing a world of theatrical illusion. After the interval, Armida’s enchanted island emerges in spectacular form — unfolding from an enormous skirt that becomes the landscape itself. Balancing comedy, enchantment, and genuine emotion, the production embraces the spirit of Handel’s opera: a work filled with dazzling magic, deeply felt moments, and some of the most beautiful music of the Baroque repertoire.
Conducter: David Bates
Director: Julia Burbach
Associate director: Mark Burn
Set and costume design: Bettina John
Lighting design: Robert Price
Choreographer: Cameron McMillan
Costume supervisor: Karen Hopkinson
Hair and Make-up: Alice Hardy
With singers of the Royal Academy of Music’s Advanced Opera Diploma Programme
