Handel's Rinaldo recast as pacey drama by Royal Academy of Music with some star quality in the solo roles

Handel: Rinaldo - Ellie Donald, Agustin Pennino - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Handel: Rinaldo: Agustin Pennino, Caroline Blair, Ellie Donald, Joel Robson, director: Julia Burbach, conductor: David Bates, Royal Academy Opera; Susie Sainsbury Theatre at Royal Academy of Music
Reviewed 18 March 2026

Handel's first Italian opera for London, reshaped as a vivid and pacey two hours with real Handelian star quality from some of the cast and a vibrantly urgent account of the score.

Having set some strong librettos during his four-year stay in Italy, from 1706 to 1710, in works like Agrippina and Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Handel's first opera for London, Rinaldo, which premiered in 1711 at the Queen's Theatre featured a far less impressive libretto. Using a scenario created by impresario Aaron Hill, the work aimed for visual spectacle to help show off the theatre's machinery. Handel's approach to the music was similar and his re-use of existing material from his Italian period has led some to comment that the work is closer to a pasticcio, a 'best of' assemblage. But whatever we think the work's dramatic logic (or lack thereof), it is undoubtedly full of good things.

This seems to have been the approach of director Julia Burbach and musical director David Bates for the new production of Handel's Rinaldo from Royal Academy Opera. Double cast, on Wednesday 18 March 2026 we caught Agustin Pennino as Rinaldo, Caroline Blair as Almirena, Ellie Donald as Armida, Joel Robson as Argante, Yihui Wang as Goffredo and Pavel Basov as Eustazio. Designs were by Bettina John, lighting by Robert Price and choreography by Cameron McMillan. The Royal Academy Sinfonia was in the pit.

Handel: Rinaldo - Agustin Pennino, Caroline Blair - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Burbach's intention in the production seems to have been to create a viable dramatic framework for the great numbers from the opera, giving the cast opportunities beyond a simple recital. There were significant cuts: the opening scene of Act Two, with the mermaids/sirens, was cut, the recitative was pared down to the bone and many arias shorn of the B sections. The resulting work, as presented, was a pacey and vivid two hours in the theatre (including interval). Burbach's scenario played up the 'boys own' nature of the original (something Robert Carsen's rather Harry Potter-ish school production at Glyndebourne brought out).

Casting used Handel's 1731 revisions for the role of Goffredo, making him a tenor rather than alto castrato, but both Almirena and Armida were sopranos as in the original 1711 production. The role of Eustazio, which was eliminated in later revivals, was included, but he was sung by a baritone (something I believe Handel never did) rather than alto castrato. The mermaids (sirens) and Christian magician were entirely eliminated.

The drama took place in a plain white box and at the beginning of the overture we saw the cast in ordinary street clothes, giving the work a sense of play-acting. The way Burbach had some of the characters deliver their lines perched above the rear wall brought an element of comedy, and throughout there was a sense that the comic was close to the surface. This came to the fore in the final act where the intercutting of scenes brought out a sense of comedy; something that was played up in Rinaldo's great final aria. The inclusion of the character of Eustazio was not simply done from a desire to increase the number of solo roles. Burbach had recast the character as a playful Cupid figure who involved himself in the action throughout, thus removing the need for internal dramatic logic (which the piece rather lacks).

Handel: Rinaldo - Pavel Basov - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Agustin Pennino made an earnest and ardent Rinaldo. He entered with a will into the action and sang with fine, bright voice that provided a lovely accuracy in the passagework. Few emotional depths were plumbed, but then the opera isn't about that. Pennino moved confidently from the poignant 'Cara sposa' to a vivid 'Venti, turbini, prestate' and a final 'Or la tromba' that was musically vivid even though the staging sent the work up.

The opera offers little chance for intimate interaction between Rinaldo and Almirena, so Pennino and Caroline Blair were remarkably proper in their interactions until the end of the opera. Blair made a neat, rather contained Almirena. Her bird aria in Act One, though beautifully precisely sung, was somewhat overshadowed by some vivid flute and piccolo playing in the orchestra. Her approach to 'Lascia ch'io pianga' was neat, proper and rather too contained so that the vivid sounds from Bates and the orchestra rather dominated. It was only in Act Three, when the plot unwound, that Blair seemed to let go and give us a glimpse of the real Almirena.

Ellie Donald made a very vivid Armida, though it was unfortunate that her opening 'Furie terribili!' was rather upstaged by the crash of percussion in the orchestra. But Donald had great fun throughout the opera really vamping up the character. This was allied to a very stylish way with Handel's music, though as yet her approach seemed a little too correct so that musically Donald did not quite match the vivid visuals, and I did wonder what she would have made of Almirena.

Handel: Rinaldo - Yihui Wang - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Joel Robson's big entrance aria as Argante, 'Sibillar gli angui d'Aletto' (which truthfully has little to do with the drama beyond making a Big Entrance) was undercut by the fact that Robson had to sing it descending backwards down a step-ladder. Robson made Argante a somewhat shabby figure, not quite the swaggering general. This meant his wooing of Almirena in Act Two had a touching element, and we rather felt for him as he was woefully bullied by Donald's Armida.

Yihui Wang was announced as having been ill, but he still sang Goffredo with a nice swaggering confidence, though his performance style in Handel's music seemed to rather lean more towards the 19th century. Pavel Basov made an engaging Eustazio/Cupid, generating quite a bit of cheeky charm, though his voice did not seem naturally comfortable with Handel and his previous roles have been in operas by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov, Mussorgsky and Verdi.

In the pit, the 25 players of the Royal Academy Sinfonia brought brilliance and colour to a score which has its share of showy moments. Lacking the dazzling stage machinery of the original, we were able to enjoy the vivid dazzle produced by the players. Bates's approach seemed to be rather interventionist, but his players went with it with a will, following his urging to create an urgent performance.

Handel: Rinaldo - Joel Robson, Ellie Donald - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Rinaldo was designed to bedazzle the audience both with the stage effects and with the virtuosic singing. Shorn of the former, we had to rely on the latter which is to a certain extent unfair on young singers who are new to Handelian style. But the cast entered into the concept with a will, and both Agustin Pennino and Ellie Donald showed the sort of Handelian star quality which suggested they can carry an opera seria.

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