The elaborate attempt to stage Rinaldo in London aroused interest from satirists Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in the Spectator. Addison, after examining the printed wordbook, reported: ‘The Opera of Rinaldo is filled with Thunder and Lightning, Illuminations, and Fireworks; which the Audience may look upon without catching Cold, and indeed without much danger of being ...
A small number of Handel’s dramatic works are known as the ‘magic operas’, including Rinaldo, Teseo (1712), Amadigi (1715), Orlando (1733) and Alcina. These operas feature protagonists who use sorcery to manipulate love, usually for evil ends. Most common among these operas is the prima-donna sorceress figure, who attempts to compel a castrato hero away from his true ...
written mainly for the cultivated audiences of his wealthy and influential patrons. Recommended Recording: Cantata per la notte di Natale (Abramo, il tuo sembiante), soloists, Concerto Italiano (dir) Rinaldo Alessandrini (Opus 111) Introduction | Late Baroque | Classical Personalities | Domenico Scarlatti | Late Baroque | Classical ...
1690–1756, Italian The Italian mezzo-soprano castrato Antonio Maria Bernacchi earned fame throughout Europe for his impressive technical virtuosity. Bernacchi performed in operas by most of the important composers of his time, including Handel. In 1716 and 1717, Bernacchi sang at the Haymarket, London, in parts previously sung by women, including Goffredo in Handel’s Rinaldo. However ...
, which makes extreme use of dissonance, is interesting for its own sake, but had little far-reaching influence. Recommended Recording: O dolorosa gioia: madrigali, Concerto Italiano (dir) Rinaldo Alessandrini (Opus 111) Introduction | Renaissance | Classical Personalities | Orlando Gibbons | Renaissance | Classical ...
variations, usually on a chorale melody. He also composed harpsichord suites, following models established by Froberger, sacred cantatas, Passions and songs. Recommended Recording: Keyboard Works, Rinaldo Alessandrini (Astrée) Introduction | Early Baroque | Classical Personalities | Dietrich Buxtehude | Early Baroque | Classical ...
in 1714 was to become king of Great Britain as George I. In 1711, during his first visit to London, Handel scored an immediate success with the opera Rinaldo, composed for the recently built Queen’s Theatre in the Haymarket. Three further operas were written for the theatre with excellent, mainly Italian, casts and elaborate staging, ...
convert him to Catholicism while in Italy, and preferred to accept the position of Kapellmeister at the Protestant court of the Elector of Hanover. Nevertheless, he soon composed Rinaldo, which was performed in London. It was enormously popular and he deserted his post in Hanover and relocated permanently to London, where he seems to have overcome any ...
on the True Science of Harmony’, 1754) and Traité des agréments de la musique (‘Treatise on the Charms of Music’, 1771). Recommended Recording: Five Violin Sonatas, Fabio Biondi, Rinaldo Alessandrini et al (Opus 111) Introduction | Late Baroque | Classical Personalities | Georg Philipp Telemann | Late Baroque | Classical ...
(1857–58); No. 2 in A (1858–59) Overtures and variations: Academic Festival (1879); Tragic (1880); Variations on a Theme of Haydn (‘St Anthony Variations’, 1873) Choral works: A German Requiem (1857–68); Rinaldo (1863–68); Alto Rhapsody (1869); Song of Destiny (1868–71); Song of Triumph (1870–71); Nänie (1880–81); Song of the Fates (1882) Chamber works: 2 string sextets; Clarinet Quintet; Piano Quintet; 2 string ...
and heavy tread’ is portrayed in the soprano line, which moves slowly up and then back down a chromatic scale. Recommended Recording: Madrigals Book 1, Concerto Italiano (dir) Rinaldo Alessandrini (Opus 111) Introduction | Renaissance | Classical Personalities | Philippe de Monte | Renaissance | Classical ...
Demetrio (1708). With the theatre manager Owen Swiney, Nicolini made Italian opera fashionable with adaptations of works such as Bononcini’s Camilla (1709). He created the title roles in Handel’s Rinaldo and Amadigi. Nicolini left London in 1717, although during the mid-1720s Swiney repeatedly attempted to influence the Royal Academy into engaging him once more. He remained active until his ...
Englishman). The production of Pyrrhus and Demetrius (1709) at the Queen’s Theatre on the Haymarket successfully presented music by Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725), and such events paved the way for Handel’s Rinaldo (1711), which was the first opera composed entirely in Italian specifically for a London audience. Italian Import Opera Imported Italian opera dominated the London stage thereafter, although in the ...
Devils.’ Without warning, it is said that Handel grasped her around the waist and threatened to fling her out of the window. Performance | The First Performances of Rinaldo | Late Baroque | Opera ...
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