Rinaldo review – Handel's crusade is replaced by a circus

Roll up! Roll up! The circus has come to Longborough. Handel's Rinaldo isn't an obvious candidate for the greatest-show-on-earth treatment. In the hands of director Jenny Miller, however, the characters and their essential nature are clearly delineated, even if Tasso's already muddled tale of the first crusade and the Christianisation of Jerusalem gets buried in the parade of clowns.

This production was conceived to spotlight emerging singers, mostly in their mid-20s, Handel's age when he boldly wrote this first operatic creation for the London stage in 1711. None shows more long-term promise than the circus strongman Rinaldo (countertenor Jake Arditti, son of violinist Irvine), who delivers Handel's arias with a confidence and underlying emotional strength that carries the evening. As Armida, demon-sorceress and secret weapon of Rinaldo's opponent, the tiger-taming King Argante (soprano Rhiannon Llewellyn) is also vocally nuanced while appearing brazenly sexy. Mezzo Martha Jones's ringmaster Goffredo and Eloise Irving's Almirena make their mark, with baritone Nicholas Merryweather adding the weight of his experience as Argante.

Miller's circus take does make a mockery of the war and religion, but charm compensates for the absence of logic, with the 10 on-stage musicians adding to the rash of red-spotted clowns. Singers appear from the massive head of a clown, mouth agape, with twirling parasols and movable flats choreographed to animate the action. Yet, enduring as the attraction of the circus images are, the musical acrobatics of Handel's score are still more engaging. Jeremy Silver, conducting from the harpsichord, ensures a good balance between the brilliant wind-writing and the voices who, each in turn, vie with the instruments for agility and verve.