Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Rinaldo

With dazzling set designs and powerhouse sopranos, Karlsruhe’s Rinaldo upholds the opera's Baroque fantasy allure in a flawed yet fascinating production, conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini. 

Although abbreviated, Pinchgut Opera's production of Handel's Rinaldo makes a powerful dramatic impact and exemplifies high musical values, with excellent orchestral playing and consistently fine singing.

Director Louisa Proske refracts Handel's tale of warlords and witches through the prism of a juvenile dream world, aided by a game cast headed by Anthony Roth Costanzo.

Federico Maria Sardelli conducts an historic production of Handel’s first Italian opera for London with energy and Baroque spirit. Teresa Iervolino takes the leading role in a convincing cast.

Blazers and breastplates! This Rinaldo is already eight years old! It’s played at the BBC Proms while almost 40 performances have graced Glyndebourne’s festival and tour up to now, so it must be doing something right.

Robert Carsen's riotous production of Rinaldo returns to the Sussex Downs, a schoolboy fantasy colliding crusading knights with St Trinian's bad girls. 

Philippe Jaroussky and Emőke Baráth's team-up with the Ensemble Artaserse proved nothing short of wonderful.

Giorgio Sangati's staging idea pits Christians vs Saracens as pop stars against dark metal.

Even without stage machinery or sets, The English Concert’s performance of Handel’s Rinaldo was enchanting. 

There were plenty of vocal fireworks in this concert performance of Handel’s opera. 

Baroque opera in Poland is similar to the legendary Nazi treasure train. There are lots of stories about it, but like the train, its true existence seems speculative.

Chalk and talk is dead. Teachers scramble to bring history to life in classrooms up and down the country through dressing-up days and interactive whiteboard activities. Few, however, can equal Robert Carsen’s efforts in his riotous production of Handel’s Rinaldo, here on its first Glyndebourne revival since its 2011 première.

An excellent cast headed by Franco Fagioli makes this concert version of Rinaldo at the Theater an der Wien unforgettable; Il Pomo d'Oro shine in the pit.

The Lautten Compagney performed Handel's Rinaldo at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw enjoyably, though without sweeping the audience off its feet.

“It’s magic!” Whether through Disney cartoons, renowned illusionists, or smartphones, visual magic continues to delight contemporary audiences. Three hundred years ago in 18th-century London, audiences were stunned by Handel’s all-new operatic extravaganza Rinaldo, which not only featured a top-notch cast, but also the latest and greatest special effects.

Glyndebourne has a great track record with staging Handel’s works. In recent years, there have been great productions of Theodora, Rodelinda and Giulio Cesare, all of which have proved equally popular at subsequent revival and Glyndebourne on Tour (GTO) productions as well.

London audiences had never seen anything quite like it. Fireworks, fountains and live sparrows were just a few of the special effects livening up the premiere of Handel's Rinaldo way back in 1711, prompting the Spectator's critic to compare it sniffily to a Punch and Judy show. Fast forward two hundred years, and you might wonder if there's been any progress.

To Glyndebourne, for the opening night of Handel's Rinaldo, the first of his operas to be staged in London in 1711, when he was just 26 years old.