Handel’s Rinaldo was presented at the 2018 Festival della Valle d’Itria in its rare Neapolitan version of 1718, reconstructed from historical sources by musicologist Giovanni Andrea Sechi. Created in Naples by Leonardo Leo and other composers after the opera’s success in London, this version incorporates additional music, comic characters and intermezzi, and was performed in modern times for the first time. Fabio Luisi conducted the baroque ensemble La Scintilla, with Teresa Iervolino as Rinaldo and Carmela Remigio as Armida. Giorgio Sangati’s colourful, rock-inspired production transformed the protagonists into pop-culture figures, including Rinaldo as Freddie Mercury and Armida as Cher.