Credits:

Fabio Luisi / Philharmonia Zurich

Description:

Handel composed the opera *Rinaldo* based on the 17th-century epic poem *Jerusalem Delivered*. It is an expansive narrative featuring a complex web of characters.Premiered in 1711, the work was a huge success; records indicate it was performed 15 times during that season alone. The score used for this production is the so-called Neapolitan version, created by the Italian composer Leonardo Leo in response to this great success. This version was adapted for the Neapolitan audiencewith slight changes to the setting and the addition of new charactersby Leo and other composers who assisted in rehearsals when Grimaldi, the singer who first performed *Rinaldo* in London, was set to sing the piece in Naples; the score itself had been lost for a long time.For this production, Seki reconstructed the newly discovered Naples Version, and Sangarti, who directed the staging, set the stor