West Edge Opera’s “Rinaldo,” a staging in Oakland with glorious singing and an over-the- top design concept, is a wild ride.
Director Keturah Stickann sets the 1711 opera, Handel’s first and most popular opera for the London stage, not in the Crusades as in the original, but in the world of superheroes.
Countertenor Kyle Tingzon as Rinaldo shows his superhero vocal and physical muscles at the outset. Caped in blue and in constant flexing mode, he is employed by the police force and has as his sidekicks a police chief and a dancing team of cops; it’s opera à la Batman, Superman and Dick Tracy.
The sorceress Armida, swathed in shiny feathers, is every bit his counterpart. Soprano Nikki Einfeld, protected by dancing Furies who also rob banks, possesses equal coloratura flair and flex.
If it seems that the cops-and-robbers concept gets in the way of the music at times, it does, until the ultimate superhero steps in: Handel.
The “Rinaldo” score in this reduced version (2 1/2 hours) offers aria after aria of glorious musical narrative, beginning with Tingzon’s “Caro sposa,” an expression of love for Almirena.
As Almirena, soprano Shawnette Sulker gets off to a slow start; she wins a big hand for the well-known showstopper “Lascia ch’io pianga” (instantly recognized as the famed “Lascia la spina” from an oratorio Handel wrote and revised).
The sorceress Armida has a companion in villain Argante, sung by Efrain Solis in a burnished, supple baritone. Solis shows a highly refined comic side, too, and contralto Sara Couden as Rinaldo’s sidekick Goffredo is in top-flight voice and hilarious in dealing with his team of high-stepping police officers.
Liliana Duque-Piñero’s simple set shows two empty rooms in which the forces of good and evil interact and Yuki Izumihara’s vivid abstract projections offer the occasional explosive “zap” and kapow!”
The 18-player orchestra led by Emily Senturia features a harpsichord passage written by Handel for himself, dashingly executed by Julian Garvue.
West Edge Opera’s “Rinaldo” continues at 8 p.m. Aug. 8 and 2 p.m. Aug. 15 at Oakland Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive, Oakland. Tickets are $22-$182 at westedgeopera.org.
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