ENO’s Rodelinda: near-perfect singing, perfectly gimmicky direction

I wasn’t going to write about Handel’s Rodelinda, wasn’t even intending to go, but thanks to the kindness of the press office at ENO I did, and it was so marvellous that I can’t resist expressing my delight. Not that it was ideal — no production of Rodelinda is, or, I’m beginning to suspect, can be. The musical side of things, actually, was close to perfect, but Richard Jones seemed to be in several minds about what kind of work it is, and indulged in an orgy of director’s gimmicks, gleefully abetted by the set designer Jeremy Herbert. Set in fascist Milan, the show was redolent of Glyndebourne’s 1998 production, which took its inspiration from silent movies in the exaggerated posturing of its heroes and, especially, villains. At ENO we have a set of two rooms, one occupied by the baddies, then across a narrow corridor — plenty of doors to slam and reappear through — the intensively surveyed room where they keep their prisoners.