It is the opera that launched the International Handel Festival in Göttingen in 1920: "Rodelinda" by George Frideric Handel. With it's performance, festival founder Oskar Hagen initiated the Handel renaissance in Göttingen. After the festival had to be cancelled for it's 100th anniversary in 2020 due to corona, "Rodelinda" came to the stage of the Deutsches Theater on 9 September 2021. Love and passion, jealousy and intrigue - Handel's "Rodelinda" has all the ingredients that Handel needs as a basis for varied, emotionally charged music. And he really went all out: at last, in the 1720s in London, he had access to outstanding singers and an excellent international orchestra. The roles are correspondingly demanding. With this "Rodelinda", the Handel Festival once again proves that historically informed performance practice can make a deep impression even without world stars. And Laurence Cummings - in his last year as artistic director of the Festival - once again underlines his exceptional position as one of the leading Handel conductors of our day.