Rebecca Evans (Rodelinda) and the countertenor Iestyn Davies (Bertarido) sing their duet with consummate skill. Evans has everything the role requires…
Hilary Finch, The Times, 03 March 2014
…it doesn’t happen often in opera that all the elements combine for total musical theatre that stuns: in this case, two great voices – Rebecca Evans’ soprano and Iestyn Davies’ countertenor – at what sounds like the peak of their stylish careers.
David Nice, The Arts Desk, 01 March 2014
Rebecca Evans in the title role gives vent to her own desolation, it’s with a full-bloodedness turning to physical fury as she hurls jewels back at her would-be seducer Grimoaldo.
Michael Church, The Independent, 03 March 2014
…the world-class Welsh soprano …is given… a raft of great music which she sang with her customary brilliance. This is an opera where the diva has all the best tunes, and Evans seized them gratefully.
Mark Valencia, What’s on Stage, 01 March 2014
Musically it’s tremendous…Evans but did extraordinary things with her ecstatic aria of relief on discovering that Bertarido is still alive.
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, 01 March 2014
…excellent singing, particularly from Rebecca Evans in the title role and Iestyn Davies as the usurped King.
Sam Smith, The Londonist, 01 March 2014
Rebecca Evans showed Rodelinda as a woman more than capable of asserting her rank and getting the better of Grimoaldo, as well as combining great tenderness in her expressions of fidelity to Bertarido, for instance in the ravishing ‘Ritorna, oh caro’.
Curtis Rogers, Classical Source, March 2014
a cabaret of superb musical quality. Rebecca Evans and Iestyn Davies are just about perfection as Rodelinda and Bertarido, and there’s a performance of terrific personality and authority by John Mark Ainsley as the loopy Grimoaldo.
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 04 March 2014
I cannot gush enough about how utterly divine Rebecca Evans’ Rodelinda was, what a rich tone and perfect technique she had, giving us some flawless high pianissimi to die for. If you want an example of the finest of British singing, this is it.
Melinda Hughes, Spear’s, 03 March 2014
Rebecca Evans’s Rodelinda, a dead ringer for Anna Magnani in Rossellini’s 1945 war drama Rome, Open City, emerges as tough and earthy rather than noble and pure. The voice has more colour in the chest register than the top, but Evans handles her arias with unfailing aplomb.
Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 03 March 2014
Vital to Handel is quality singing, and you would have to search long and hard to find a Rodelinda as accomplished as Rebecca Evans or a Bertarido as finely-grained as Iestyn Davies: both are superb.
George Hall, The Stage, 03 March 2014
The outstanding contribution was that of Rebecca Evans…this is a big voice, big enough to sing Verdi in a large house. As Rodelinda her singing was truly world class, deeply moving, a still point in the midst of chaos, utterly secure in the coloratura and delivering a truly ravishing sotto voce. It would be worth going to a performance purely to hear her sing.
Miranda Jackson, Opera Britannia, 03 March 2014
Rebecca Evans delivered her great aria of relief at finding Bertarido alive with a wonderful pianissimo inwardness.
Helen Wallace, BBC Music Magazine, 04 March 2014
The supreme star of the show is Rodelinda, sung with ravishing tone and great intensity by Rebecca Evans.
Michael Tanner, The Spectator, 08 March 2014
Rebecca Evans excels in the title role, lavishing each aria with finely measured expression, now spitting outrage, now hushed in loving embrace.
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, 09 March 2014
Rebecca Evans…rent the heart with her ravishingly sung Act III arias.
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, 09 March 2014
Rebecca Evans has always had drama in her blood and in this towering production she gives a performance of consummate singing and acting. The feistiness of her Rodelinda is matched by the pathos and beauty of her singing as she delivers aria after demanding aria that run the gamut of emotions.
Mike Smith, Walesonline, 09 March 2014
With a cast led by Rebecca Evans as Rodelinda and the magnificent countertenor Iestyn Davies warbling their way through Handel’s gloriously challenging arias, the whole thing adds up to a thoroughly good and highly amusing night out.
William Hartston, Daily Express, 06 March 2014
Rebecca Evans (Rodelinda) and Iestyn Davies (Bertarido) are both fine actors and world-class Handelians.
Warwick Thompson, Metro, 04 March 2014
t…here was the wonder of Rodelinda herself, a female character to reckon with, wife, mother and queen, all of them noble – smart – and exquisitely personified by Welsh soprano Rebecca Evans.
Candice Allen, Artsmeme, 17 March 2014
As sung by Rebecca Evans, her first aria bristled with defiance…her Rodelinda sounded feisty too, dispatching dramatic crescendos and fiery apeggios with panache….this was a complete and compelling assumption.
Erica Jeal, Opera, May 2014