Brilliant, Starlit Night

Metropolitan Opera's 'Rodelinda' grants Handel his due

By JAMES JORDEN

The Metropolitan Opera can be a pretty dreary place when presenting an under-cast and under-rehearsed revival. But their new production of Handel's "Rodelinda" on December 6 was of festival quality, brilliantly prepared and boasting a superstar cast that included David Daniels and Renée Fleming.

I keep trying to like Fleming, but her increasingly mannered delivery just grates on me. Yes, the voice retains a lovely, silky quality, and she looks quite fetching onstage. But her micromanagement of Rodelinda's music, inflecting every single word and note, robs her of the ability to sing a true legato, and, ironically, veils the sound to the point that her Italian is almost completely inscrutable.

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