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As Polinesso's foil Dalinda, Sarah Tynan again gave a demonstration of how talented this young singer is. Her Dalinda was no pert soubrette (the first Dalinda in this production was Lesley Garrett). Tynan gave full weight to Dalinda's sexiness but gave the character an underlying sadness that made the final lack of resolution of her relationship to Lurcanio quite believable. Ariodante is quite unusual in that the happy ending is not forced on everyone; by the conclusion of Act 3, Dalinda has told Lurcanio, who loves her, that he can have reason to hope and that she regrets her relationship with Polinesso, but in Amanda Holden's translation she never actually says that she's stopped loving Polinesso.

The role of Lurcanio was written for the young English tenor John Beard. It represented the first of many fine tenor parts that Handel would write for this talented singer and was the first major tenor part, for some years, in Handel's operas. Paul Nilon has sung the part in this production before and benefited from the decision to play the opera uncut so he gets to sing all of Lurcanio's fine arias -- Lurcanio is a pretty big role. Nilon has a freeness and directness that suits the character. It is always surprising to me that he manages to get his voice around the Handelian fioriture but he does and does so brilliantly and expressively.

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