Grammy-winning American countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen takes on the title role, with Mary Bevan as Almirena. Joining them onstage are countertenor Andy Shen Liu, mezzo-soprano Rachael Wilson, and regular TEC collaborators Paula Murrihy, Alexander Chance, and Ashley Riches.

The project will tour East Asia, visiting Shanghai, Beijing, and Incheon, with an additional excerpts recital in Macau. On 24 October, TEC will bring the opera to St Martin-in-the-Fields, just around the corner from the London theatre where it started life 314 years ago.

This is an enchanting opera of seashores and mountains, witchcraft and warfare; not to mention some of Handel’s finest melodies for voice and orchestra. The very first performance in the 18th century included flying birds. What this version lacks in live animals, it will make up for in soaring melodies and flying hearts.

Director Harry Bicket says: “Rinaldo was not only Handel’s first operatic success in London, but one of the first Handel operas I ever conducted professionally, 25 years ago in Munich. It is a kaleidoscope of hit arias, each more virtuosic and colourful as the opera progresses.”

To launch the tour, The English Concert will also perform a special recital at St Joseph the Worker Church in Macau, featuring a selection of arias from the opera and the overture from the oratorio Solomon.

Concert Schedule

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Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen filed this wonderful dispatch from onboard the Shanghai to Beijing bullet train, on tour with TEC as Rinaldo in October 2025.
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In summer 2026, The English Concert continues its residency at Garsington Opera on the Wormsley Estate.
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Mary Bevan and Harry Bicket rehearse ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from Handel’s Rinaldo
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