|
Strongly Musical
Handel's 'Radamisto' at the London Coliseum,
reviewed by ROBERT HUGILL
Radamisto was one of Handel's earliest operas for the Royal Academy, a period when his choice of plot and libretto was much circumscribed by the directors of the Royal Academy. These aristocrats had a fondness for plots which took noble characters and put them through a series of testing situations. Plot per se was less important than the emotional situations which it set up and its success judged by the degree with which individual characters were put through the wringer.
Whilst Handel never wrote any comedies as such, his operas from other periods include elements of satirical levity and he was to return again and again to plots with magical elements. Neither of these is to be found in the operas of the Royal Academy...
Copyright © 12 October 2010
Robert Hugill,
London UK
|
