Rodelinda

Bertarido, king of Milan, treacherously ousted from his throne,
is presumed dead. His loving wife Rodelinda, determined to
preserve their son as the rightful heir, remains loyal to his
memory. The usurper Grimoaldo was promised to Bertarido’s
ambitious sister Eduige, but longs for and preys on Rodelinda, abetted by his evil genius
Garibaldo, who manipulates both Grimoaldo and Eduige to his own Machiavellian ends. Only
the modest councillor Unulfo knows that Bertarido is still alive, but must be prevented from
revealing himself.
Like the other operas of Handel’s annus mirabilis of 1724-5 (Giulio Cesare and Tamerlano),
Rodelinda meets the interests of his Royal Academy audience by dramatising dynastic power
struggles. But Rodelinda speaks to every audience in the acutely human realism of all its
characters, in its suspenseful momentum, and in Handel’s heartstopping portrayal and
celebration of married love, created for two singers who excelled in heroic pathos, Cuzzoni
and Senesino (who chose to have his portrait painted in his
role as Bertarido); and it ‘contains such a number
of capital and pleasing airs, as entitles it to one
of the first places among Handel’s dramatic
productions’ (Charles Burney).