Some of the most life-affirming opera in London can be enjoyed in the regular productions at the city’s conservatories. First and foremost, they provide a showcase and valuable experience for student singers and instrumentalists, who in most cases collaborate with professional conductors and production teams. Audiences, meanwhile, can take advantage of the (reasonably priced) opportunity to take a seat in an intimate auditorium, with the theatrical immediacy it offers, and spot the next generation of exceptional talent.
The repertoire choices are sometimes adventurous. Not only are rarities unearthed, but in November 2025 the Royal Academy of Music took on the challenge of fielding two casts for an imaginative and punchy staging of Carmen – a popular masterpiece which, in its own way, can prove daunting for the operatic establishment.
Baroque opera is a more readily manageable proposition and, as might be expected, Handel asserts a recurring presence. At the Royal Academy, Semele, Ariodante and Imeneo have featured on the programme within the last decade. The choice for the first of its productions this spring was Rinaldo. (The next, in May, will be Britten – The Rape of Lucretia, last staged by the Academy in 2014.)
Handel’s opera – which in 1711 became his first great success in London – was abridged to a total running time of two hours and the director Julia Burbach, working with designer Bettina John, kept things relatively simple. The extravagant Crusader-era scenario was presented as a kind of stripped-down historical fantasy in a white, minimalist set, while the costumes juxtaposed medieval finery and modern-day eclecticism. The opening and closing moments signalled to the audience that this was a student show within a student show – and Eustazio (brother of the Crusader chief Goffredo) kept his tongue in his cheek as a naughty-schoolboy Cupid – but the mythical action, with all its twists, turns and transformations, was taken for the most part at face value. Rinaldo was equipped with leather armour (there was even a swordfight) and the magical environment of Armida’s realm was evoked with a bolt of fabric which covered the floor and matched the fuchsia and scarlet train that the sorceress – quite a diva – flicked as she strutted around the stage.
David Bates, founder and artistic director of the ensemble La Nuova Musica, conducted a performance that channelled the youthful energy of the singers and the Royal Academy Sinfonia, a period-instrument ensemble, to often thrilling effect. In the title role Ella Orehek-Coddington, her high mezzo agile and gleaming, exuded seriousness of purpose and she achieved searing intensity in her heartbroken aria ‘Cara sposa’. (The production’s alternative cast featured a countertenor, Agustín Pennino, in the role.) Tom Butler, as Rinaldo’s antagonist Argante, proved that his substantial baritone could contend confidently with the brass section in his splendid entrance aria, the fanfare-heavy ‘Sibilar gli angui d’Aletto’. Pearly-toned rather than glittering or brittle, Grace Hope-Gill made a seductively dangerous Armida, and Abigail Sinclair, her timbre simultaneously sweet and bracing, exercised exquisite judgement in ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’, a number that has acquired a mass-media life of its own. Owen Lucas deployed his lithe, incisive tenor with commanding style as Goffredo and, in its firm concentration, Theodore McAlindon’s bass belied the lightness suggested by his fluffy pink wings.
Yehuda Shapiro
Rinaldo
Music: George Frideric Handel
Libretto: Giacomo Rossi
Cast and production staff:
Rinaldo – Ella Orehek-Coddington; Almirena – Abigail Sinclair; Armida – Grace Hope-Gill; Goffredo – Owen Lucas; Argante – Tom Butler; Eustazio (Cupid) – Theodore McAlindon
Director – Julia Burbach; Choreography – Cameron McMillan; Set & Costume Designer – Bettina John; Lighting Designer– Robert Price; Conductor – David Bates
Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music, London, 17 March 2026
Top image: Theodore McAlindon as Eustazio, Abigail Sinclair as Almirena, and Ella Orehek-Coddington as Rinaldo
All photos © Craig Fuller