The singing is first-rate, while Harry Bicket has an unerring ear for pacing and instrumental colour. He and the ever-responsive English Concert relish without indulgence the sensuous beauty of Handel’s textures ... From Rodelinda’s opening aria mourning Bertarido’s supposed death, via the yearning siciliano ‘Ritorna, o caro’, to her radiant final aria, Crowe acts vividly with the voice without ever compromising tonal beauty. ... Iestyn Davies’s refinement and delicacy make ‘Dove sei’ and the melancholy siciliano ‘Con rauco mormorio’ highlights. ...this new recording, more subtly directed and more consistently sung, now becomes my top recommendation for an opera that should be on any Handel lover’s shortlist.  Richard Wigmore

Bicket’s cast... is crammed with Handelian talent. Soprano Lucy Crowe sings the title role, always brilliant in precision and expressive power, as heard in her sorrowful aria Ombre, piante. The countertenor Iestyn Davies, as her “dead” husband Bertarido, invests every word, every note with intensity, and sends the dramatic temperature soaring at each entry.  Fiona Maddocks

Senesino’s role as the husband-in-exile Bertarido is taken here by Iestyn Davies, as expressive a countertenor as they come, and his pure-toned singing has a star quality that makes his slow arias special. The recording’s other main attraction is Lucy Crowe in the lambent arias of the title role.