Rodelinda, which is presented in the Municipal of Santiago between September 2 and 24, is an opera seria separated in three acts with music by Händel and the script by Nicola Francesco Haym who based in the Antonio Salvi’s.
The main issue of this Italian opera could be as contemporary nowadays as it was three centuries ago. In it, the main character, Rodelinda, must deal with different roles, being a mother, a widow, a queen and future wife of who threats her to achieve the power. In addition, she must face doubts about her faithfulness as a wife, loyalty and love for her son’s life; threats and longing for loosing her spouse. Different roles that currently are disguised as daily tasks, are the duties of a 18th-century queen different from the current women’s?
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Along with this, and as is characteristic in opera seria, power conflicts arise. Who shows it? How do rulers come to power? Even the legitimacy of sovereignty is questioned in the dialogue, as Machiavelli did centuries before. It is perhaps anecdotal to think about the influence of the Florentine thinker in the Roman librettist and in the opera of an Englishman.
“… the staging leaves the viewer stunned because the way in which lighting, costumes and scenery set out to read and understand the plot of the work is absolutely novel …”
As in several operas, the script often becomes repetitive for the audience or obsolete in the topics to be treated. However, in the version directed musically by Philipp Ahmann there is a change in the setting of the work that delivers dynamism, power and absolute concentration on the part of the audience. It is there where the staging exercise leaves the viewer stunned because the way in which lighting, costumes and set design dialogue to read and understand the plot of the work is absolutely novel, in addition to appreciating the interaction between the lights of neon, the toys and the puppets that circulate next to the singers in the scene. The proposal creates an environment conducive to rethinking the way in which baroque creations are valued, especially since Bellorini’s experience and virtuosity is noted, by making the scenery potentiate the libretto and not cancel it leaving it obsolete or away from the subject.
In this way an opera is radically enhanced whose theme echoes today, in which feminism is thematic of conversation worldwide, where the empowerment of women is increasingly powerful and thus also the amount of roles with they have to deal with. All this happens from the child’s gaze, that character to whom Bellorini pays great attention by highlighting with the projection of his face that it is he who observes the ravings for the power that occur around him.
Data Sheet
Music Director: Philipp Ahmann
Régie and illumination: Jean Bellorini
Staging assistant: Mathieu Coblentz
Scenography: Jean Bellorini and Véronique Chazal
Costume: Macha Makeïeff
Illumination assistant: Luc Muscillo
Staff
Rodelinda: Sabina Puértolas
Bertarido: Xavier Sabata
Grimoaldo: Santiago Bürgi
Eduige: Gaia Petrone
Unulfo: Christopher Ainslie
Garibaldo: Javier Arrey
Flavio (boy): María Prudencio
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