There are quite a few Handel productions that wish they were this one. It's easy to see why Jean-Marie Villégier's 1998 staging (revived and reworked for Glyndebourne Touring Opera by Christopher Cowell) might inspire imitation. It is stylish, looks great, has bags of attitude and is, in places, very witty. But it is also serious and profoundly moving. One moment in particular - when the usurping Grimoaldo gives Rodelinda's little boy his gun to play with, before it dawns on her that his threat is not to her but to her son - is genuinely chilling. Updated to interwar Italy, the setting is far away enough for us to accept unquestioningly the opera's structured format, but recent enough to give it an extra resonance.
Some of the direction tends towards fussiness, and the melodramatic movements assigned to Rodelinda emphasise her imperiousness at the expense of some of the role's humanity, but these flaws barely dent the production's very real impact. And musically, it is even more impressive - conducted, in part from the keyboard, by French harpsichordist Emanuelle Haïm in her UK debut. Under Haïm, the GTO Orchestra sound happier than ever, playing with poise, accuracy and a coiled energy that, in the virtuoso arias, is a formidable driving force.
Robin Blaze sings Bertarido, a role that boasts two of the best countertenor arias in the repertoire. Somebody coughed during the first note of Dove Sei, unaware that they were about to hear one of the most effortlessly gorgeous melodies that Handel ever spun. But by the end of the aria, you could have heard a pin drop.
Blaze is no less compelling in the show-stopper Vivi, Tiranno, but what impresses most is the sheer musicality and polish of his and Emma Bell's interpretation of the second-act duet. Bell, in the title role, has an intriguing soft sheen to her soprano and is capable of a huge range of impassioned expression. Both are singers of enormous promise.
Jean Rigby is on glorious form as Eduige, and counter-tenor Matthew White, portraying Unulfo as a real aide-de-camp, warms up to demonstrate considerable vocal presence. Stephen Rooke is a dramatically convincing Grimoaldo, though the role demands more vocal agility than he can provide. Jonathan Best's Garibaldo is a well-sung, deliciously understated villain. It's a long opera, but the three hours fly by.
Further performance on Friday. Box office: 01273 813813. Then tours to Woking, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Oxford and Stoke-on-Trent.
