Better Half attended a dress for the Met’s new production of Handel’s Rodelinda yesterday, and reported in on a gorgeous production and great performances, but all in service of an endless opera, interminable in its baroqueness and saddled with a turkey of a libretto. When someone has figured out why opera companies insist on spending lavishly on new productions of unknown (at least to all but the wonkiest of devotees) baroque operas that they know are terrible, call me with your sage counsel ’cause I’m at a loss. Every couple of years one of the Bigs parades out a production like this as new and interesting because they know no one’s ever heard of it (and there’s usually a really good reason for that), when they could do something actually new and have at least a 50/50 shot of it being good. They’re obviously so fearful of new opera that this to them is a safer bet, but the fear is completely misplaced … I mean, have you ever sat through a 4 hour baroque opera?
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