Ariodante also derives from Ariosto, but it is a serious opera. Thanks to a fine text, adapted from an old Italian libretto by Antonio Salvi, Handel was able to explore potent tragic situations, such as the King of Scotland being forced to contemplate executing his much-loved daughter Ginvera. The opera is best known for ‘Scherza infida’, an ...
The mid-1730s operas Orlando, Ariodante and Alcina represent the artistic peak of Handel’s operatic career. Their stories all originate in the epic poem Orlando Furioso by the playwright and poet Ariosto, who was born and bred at the Ferrara court in the late fifteenth century. Orlando portrays the destructive insanity of its title-hero, who ignores his destiny by ...
was the only member of Handel’s company who did not defect to the ‘Opera of the Nobility’ in 1733, and was amply rewarded by the roles Ginevra, in Ariodante, and Alcina. She returned to Italy in 1738, and retired two years later. Introduction | Late Baroque | Opera Personalities | Georg Philipp Telemann | Late Baroque | ...
1697–1781, Italian Venetian mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni was brought up by the composers Alessandro (1669–1750) and Benedetto Marcello (1686–1739). She made her debut in Pollarolo’s Ariodante in 1716, and was based in her home city until 1725, singing in operas by her teacher Gasparini, as well as Albinoni and Lotti. Between 1726 and 1728, she performed in ...
attract audiences, the Opera of the Nobility moved into the King’s Theatre. Handel, meanwhile, enjoyed the facilities of the newly built Covent Garden, where his operas Ariodante and Alcina (both 1735) were enhanced by ballets featuring the brilliant French dancer Marie Sallé. In the later 1730s, a need to sustain his London public seems to have ...
works into his theatre seasons. For the 1734–35 season, Handel established an independent opera company at John Rich’s new Covent Garden Theatre, but, despite the successes of Ariodante (1735) and Alcina (1735), Handel struggled against competition from the ‘Opera of the Nobility’, which had replaced him at the King’s Theatre. The rivalry did not benefit either faction, ...
a soprano, when he arrived in London in 1733 his voice had settled as a mezzo-soprano. During two seasons Handel created impressive new roles for Carestini in Arianna, Ariodante and Alcina. Carestini returned to Italy, and during the remainder of his career he also sang at Dresden, Berlin and St Petersburg. Hasse commented that ‘he who has ...
created English comic operas at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, including Rosamond (1733). In 1737, Arne married Cecilia Young – a renowned soprano who had performed in Handel’s operas Ariodante and Alcina. Arne was invited to compose a musical setting of Milton’s Comus (1738), which established his reputation as a serious composer, and he then composed the masque Alfred ...
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