Alceste (Handel)

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Work data
Original title: Alceste
Shape: Masque
Original language: English
Music: georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto : Tobias Smollett (acting), Thomas Morell (lyrics)
Premiere: planned early 1750, did not take place
Place of premiere: the planned was the Covent Garden Theater , London
Playing time: 1 hour (music only)
Place and time of the action: Pherai in Thessaly , mythical time (shortly before the Trojan War )
people

Alceste or Alcides ( HWV 45) is the incidental music by Georg Friedrich Handel for the play by Tobias Smollett and his only large-scale project for the English theater, which he tackled at the age of almost 65. Although the music of this semi-opera is excellent in its maturity, the cunning of the object caused the project to fail without the composer's fault; the music was therefore never performed as intended.

Emergence

Although Handel worked as an opera and oratorio composer for the London theaters for nearly fifty years, he wrote little actual incidental music for plays. However, one of his first opera overtures (to Rodrigo ) was used as stage music for a re-performance of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist in 1710 (see The Alchemist ). Only three songs for pieces by John Gay ( The What D'ye Call It , 1715), James Miller ( The Universal Passion , 1737) and William Congreve ( The Way of the World , 1740) were composed specifically for English theater and to Handel's lifetime listed. In 1745 he composed the epilogue for a private production of John Milton's Masque Comus (see Handel's Comus ).

On April 27, 1749, Handel's status, which had become an icon of British musical culture, was further reinforced with an open-air performance of the Music for the Royal Fireworks (Fireworks Music , HWV 351) in London's Green Park near St James's Palace . After spending a few years writing triumphant oratorios in response to the Jacobite Uprising , rich in good melodies but poor in artistic subtlety, Handel shortly before returned to the artistic form of the oratorio, which was rather demanding in its approach : In 1749, in his oratorio series at the Covent Garden Theater, the world premieres of Susanna (HWV 66) and Solomon (HWV 67) took place. Even so, this career full of ups and downs would also experience further setbacks. Four days after Handel's premiere of Susanna , the Scottish-born author Tobias Smollett wrote in a letter to the clergyman Alexander Carlyle :

"I have wrote a sort of Tragedy on the Story of Alceste, which will (without fail) be acted at Covent Garden next Season and appear with such magnificence of Scenery as was never exhibited in Britain before."

"I wrote a kind of tragedy about the history of the Alceste which will (without a doubt) be performed at Covent Garden next season and will come out with such splendid decorations as it has never been shown in Britain."

- Tobias Smollett : Letter to Alexander Carlyle , February 14, 1749

As it turned out, Smollett's phrase "without a doubt" was naively over-optimistic.

Alceste was probably an expensive collaboration between the stage poet Smollett, the ensemble of actors and singers at the Covent Garden Theater, the theater owner and manager John Rich , the renowned composer Handel, his librettist Thomas Morell (who probably provided the lyrics to the songs instead of Smollett) and the well-known set designer Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni , who had a penchant for elaborate sets. Servandoni (actually Jean-Nicolas Servan) was a French-born artist who had worked as a stage painter on several opera productions at the Royal Academy of Music in the 1720s . He had also recently designed the ornate Temple of Peace for the celebrations in Green Park, which included Handel's fireworks music.

Smollett studied in 1730 he years first medicine to get a formal degree in this subject but without. After a brief activity as assistant to a surgeon in Glasgow , he moved to London in 1739 to try his luck as a playwright. However, he was not particularly successful and traveled in 1740 as the second mate of a ship's doctor on board the HMS Chichester to Jamaica , where he settled for several years. After his return in 1744 he gradually built up a literary career as a playwright, author, historian and critic in London, while in 1747 he opened a medical practice in London at the same time. His first novel, The adventures of Roderick Random (1748) was quite successful, but his first play less: the tragedy The Regicide ( The regicide , 1749) has been listed anywhere. However, Rich appears to have paid him an advance of £ 100 shortly thereafter for a new play based on the classic drama Alcestis by the Athens tragedy poet Euripides (5th century BC), although Smollett had The Regicide printed with an introduction in 1749 , in who stated that various artistic directors had allegedly promised to start the work and then broke their promise, including Rich, whom Smollett had already attacked in a satirical poem and who in another version of the Regicide story incorporated into Roderick Random as "Mr. Vandal ”appeared.

In September 1749 Smollett put his manuscript of Alceste ago, could begin so rich with rehearsals for the play, and on December 27 began Handel to compose the score, starting 27 Decemb r .1749 ☿ [Wednesday] that he Completed on January 8th 1750: Fine GF Handel completely ended January 8th ☉ [Sunday] 1750 . Despite his many years of experience in performing Italian operas, English oratorios and other works in English on the London stages, Alceste was Handel's only extensive attempt to offer incidental music for the English spoken theater. The 18th century music historian Sir John Hawkins claimed that Handel undertook the composition because he was indebted to Rich, and it can be assumed that the composer was not one of the main initiators of the project. Handel already had a copy of the autograph as a director's score (“hand copy”) from Johann Christoph Schmidt jun. arranged for the parts to be distributed and the names of the intended singers entered in the score. However, the production was not under a good star, because shortly after the start of the overall rehearsals, the production of the Alceste was canceled for reasons that are unclear today. At the beginning of February, at a time when Alceste would have been ready for performance, a new pantomime invented by Rich was premiered.

The copy of a libretto for a revival of Handel's Hercules (HWV 60), which is now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France , contains some astonishing remarks by Morell on Alceste . He claims that the work was " intended by Mr. Rich " ( planned by Mr. Rich ) and that he himself (and not Smollett) wrote the lyrics for the songs. But Rich had rejected Handel's music “ as being too good for performers ” ( as too good for [his] performers ). It is clear that the connoisseur of classical antiquity is said to have assisted in Handel's contributions: As a respected Euripides scholar, Morell had published his own edition of Alkestis in 1748 and had often written libretti for Handel's oratorios since late 1745 - later he would also write the texts for the composing the composer's last masterpieces: Theodora (HWV 68) and Jephtha (HWV 70), the latter being influenced by Euripides' Iphigenie in Aulis . Morell's claim that Rich wanted to protect his singers from embarrassment is untrustworthy without further corroborating evidence, especially since most of the soloists whom Handel mentions in his score often sang demanding roles in his oratorios. The sometimes read explanation for the rejection that a series of earthquakes in London could have led to a rural exodus of the potential London public ( Lang , Scheibler) requires evidence, since the tremors relevant for London already in spring 1749, i.e. a year earlier. Another, albeit plausible, hypothesis to explain Alceste's rejection would be that the opulence of the production with actors, singers, a choir, dancers, a large orchestra, and lavish set design became too expensive for Rich to take the risk of commercial failure . On the other hand - or maybe also - the notoriously capricious Smollett, according to two commentators ( John Moore , Smollett's friend, 1797, and Robert Anderson , 1796) , argued the hardest with Rich, who perhaps angrily canceled the production:

"[...] but a dispute taking place between the author and the manager, it was never acted, nor printed."

"[...] but since disputes arose between the author and the artistic director, it [ Alceste ] was neither performed nor printed."

- Robert Anderson , : The life of Tobias Smollett, MD , Edinburgh 1796

The discarded textbook by Smollett for the play, structured in four or five acts, has been lost, and only Handel's music for the stage has survived - although it is now divided into four different volumes of autograph manuscripts in the British Library .

There is some ambiguity as to whether ballet should be incorporated into the planned performance, especially the final scene. It is doubtful whether the famous French dancer Marie Sallé , who had already worked with Handel in the 1730s (e.g. in Alcina , Ariodante ), came back to London. Most sources state she didn't, but an early biographer claimed that she left Paris for England in 1741. And an anonymous French musician left in his Mémoirs d'un musicien (1756), a wearily inaccurate and undated account in which he claims to have met her in London and that he had witnessed her willingly renouncing over a thousand louis , which she would have received for her commitment to Handel. Could this be an indication of the failed Alceste project which included specific dances? If the Sallé had performed in London after 1735, the press would certainly have reported about it.

If Handel was upset that Alceste never came on stage, he doesn't seem to have shown it. Around the time the extravagant play should have been presented to the public at the Covent Garden Theater, a letter from the Earl of Shaftesbury to his cousin James Harris stated :

“I have seen trading several times since I came hither; and think I never saw him so cool and well. He is quite easy in his behavior, and he has been pleasing himself in the purchase of several fine pictures; particularly a large Rembrant [sic], which is indeed excellent. We have scarce talk'd at all about musical subjects, though enough to find his performances will go off incomparably. "

“I've seen Handel several times since I came here; and I think I have never seen him so calm and well. He is very sociable in his demeanor and has enjoyed acquiring some excellent paintings, especially a great Rembrandt [sic], which is really excellent. We hardly talked about musical topics, but enough to find out that his performances will be incomparable. "

- Earl of Shaftesbury : Letter to James Harris , London, February 13, 1750

Handel had spent the summer of 1749 composing Theodora , so perhaps his first musical concern was to perform this profound dramatic oratorio on March 16, 1750 at the Covent Garden Theater. Since it was only performed three times in front of an almost empty theater, Theodora fared little better than the unfortunate Alceste . The oratorio would have to wait for modern times to get the recognition it deserved. The unused incidental music for Alceste, on the other hand, paradoxically did not have to wait so long: Handel worked an accompaniment recitative, two symphonias, six choirs and eight arias, including both versions of Gentle Morpheus and the deleted Thetis bids me hither fly , for the main part of The Choice of Hercules (HWV 69), which was performed as an interlude in the re-performance of the Ode The Alexander's Feast (HWV 75) on March 1, 1751. Also during 1751 he season, rejected the first version of Calliope was Come, Fancy, empress of the brain for a resumption of Belshazzar edited (HWV 61), and several other unused numbers from Alceste were for a revival of Alexander Balu (HWV 65) Established in 1754. Even if Handel never performed his Alceste , it was significant that his music found much practical use.

Due to the loss of the original libretto, it is no longer possible to perform the work in the manner suggested by Smollett and Handel. Handel's approximately one-hour musical contributions were first performed in concert on May 23, 1969 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, together with Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell of the London Choral Society and the London Bach Orchestra under the direction of John Tobin. The first performance of incidental music in historical performance practice was on June 13, 1984 at the Banqueting House (Whitehall) in London as part of a scenic production, which was supplemented by Anthony Hicks with other Handelian instrumental music, during the English Bach Festival under the direction of Jean -Claude Malgoire .

The drama

Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder : Hercules brings Alkeste back from the underworld , ca.1776

The probable course of action of Alceste can partly be reconstructed on the basis of the musical fragments and after Euripides. Admetus , the terminally ill King of Thessaly, learns from Apollo that he can postpone his untimely death if another person dies voluntarily for him. Alcestis , his beloved wife, bravely offers to die in his place. After her death, the hero Hercules visits his grieving friend Admetus, decides to go to Hades , overpowers Pluto and brings Alcestis back to the world of the living and to Admetus. With his opera Admeto, Re di Tessaglia (HWV 22), Handel had already provided a different musical version of the same material in 1727, for which he used an arrangement of an old Italian libretto from the 17th century, which was more or less based on Euripides, but also contained a lot of piquant subplots and Venetian irony. Smollett's play was likely to be closer to classical myth in terms of content and tragic tone, but Smollett (or perhaps it was Morell and Handel) also gleaned additional scenes such as the wedding celebrations in the opening scene and the song of Charon by the river Styx , which opens the fourth act, directly from Philippe Quinault's Tragédie lyrique Alceste, ou Le Triomphe d'Alcide (LWV 50) , set to music by Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1674 for the Académie Royale de musique (and often performed again in Paris until 1739 ).

music

Handel's contribution to the semi-opera consisted of the wedding music in the first act, the music for the (fourth) act in the underworld and for the final scene in which Hercules unites the rescued Alcestis with Admetus and Apollo descends with the muses from Parnassus to join the cheers. Between these more detailed parts there are two chants in which the muse Calliope appears to the sleeping Admetus in dreams. In the first dream scene she sings of the king's recovery, which Alcestis' husband's love is supposed to bring about, and in the second of the speedy return of the queen rescued by Hercules.

The three main characters of the drama (Alcestis, Admetus and Hercules) were not intended to be singing but rather speaking roles. The score shows that Handel performed the solo vocal parts of Cecilia Young ( Thomas Augustine Arne's wife , who was to sing the soprano part of the Muse Calliope ), Miss Faulkner (another soprano), Esther Young (Cecilia's sister, originally for the alto part a siren was planned), Thomas Lowe (tenor, among other things for the solo of Apollo) and Gustav Waltz (who was supposed to sing the bass part of Charon). Handel's music begins with an extensive two-part overture in the French style in D minor, after which a Grand Entrée (No. 1) with a solo trumpet radiantly heralds the joyous wedding celebration of Admetus and Alcestis. A short Accompagnato recitative for the tenor Ye happy people ( Your happy people , No. 2) leads into the choir Triumph, Hymen, in the pair ( Triumphiere, o Hymen, in this pair , No. 3), in the soloist Vowel lines and two trumpets doubled by oboes . A soprano solo and choir lead the celebrations with the wonderful Gavotte Still caressing, and caress'd, ever blessing, ever blest ( Always Fort caressing and caressed, eternal blessing, forever blessed , no. 4) continues, after which the tenor one Tribute to the newlyweds sings, with particularly sophisticated melismatic word painting on the word "fly": Ye swift minutes as ye fly, crown them with harmonious joy! ( She crowns her quick minutes, which she hurries, with harmonious joy , No. 5). The happy wedding sequence closes with the lively choir O bless, ye pow'rs above, the bridegroom and the bride ( O bless, you heavenly powers, the bridegroom and the bride , No. 6), which uses two trumpets in a sensitive way and is interspersed with French irregular rhythms.

After Admetus fell ill and was lying on his deathbed, Calliope (the muse of epic poetry, granddaughter of Zeus and mother of Orpheus ) comforted the suffering king with her tender song Gentle Morpheus, son of night, hither speed thy airy flight! ( Gentle Morpheus, son of the night, direct your airy flight here , No. 7). The music for this scene represents a special moment of sublime emotional beauty, although Handel originally intended completely different material for the text (namely a gently flowing “Andante” in G major with transverse flute ), before he changed this in favor of the gorgeous, with “ Largo e mezzo piano ”, E major aria with four-part strings was rejected. In Handel's traditional score, the next music only appears at the beginning of the fourth act, when the gruesome Charon sings Ye fleeting shades, I come to fix your final doom! ( You fleeing shadows, I come to seal your final doom , No. 8) while he grimly brings the soul of the dead Alcestis across the River Styx to Hades. The music in G minor conveys the determined, repetitive movements of the ferryman. In Pluto's palace, Alcestis is greeted by a strangely cheerful shadow choir whose “Larghetto” proclaims in D minor: Thrice happy who in life excel, hence doom'd in Pluto's courts to dwell, where ye immortal mortals reign, now free from sorrow, free from pain ( Three times happy those who excel in life and therefore, if they are condemned to dwell in Pluto's court, where you immortal mortals rule, are free from sorrow, free from pain , No. 9). One of the spirits is a melodious tenor who invites Alcestis in a graceful A major aria, which is labeled "Allegro, ma non troppo" and contains restrained but effective interjections from the bassoon : Enjoy the sweet Elysian grove, seat of pleasure , seat of love ( Enjoy the sweet Elysian grove, seat of joy, seat of love , No. 10). The spirits repeat the chorus Thrice happy who in life excel .

Meanwhile, in Thessaly, the muse Calliope appears again to Admetus, who has recovered but is mourning his wife, and sings Come, Fancy, empress of the brain, and bring the choicest of thy train to soothe the widow'd monarch's pain! ( Come Imagination, Empress of Mind, and bring the most chosen of your retinue to still the monarch's pain , No. 11). For this text, Handel originally wrote a gentle Siciliano in F major for four-part strings in 12/8 time, labeled “Andante larghetto” , but then decided to do this with a lively G major setting with mostly unison playing, to replace energetic violin parts and an elegant vocal part. The score also contains a song for a siren who takes on the role of a messenger from Thetis to her son Hercules: Thetis bids me hither fly ( Thetis means to hurry up ), but Handel decided to delete this rather superfluous number before the director's score (which is now in Hamburg) was copied for the rehearsals.

Accompanied by a French-style symphonia , which quickly turns into a short accompaniment recitative for tenor He comes, he rises from below, with glorious conquest on his brow ( He comes, he rises from below, with a glorious victory in the eye , No. 12), Hercules triumphantly rises from Hades with the rescued Alcestis; a chorus of Thessalians proclaims All hail, thou mighty son of Jove! ( Hail, you mighty son of Jupiter!, No. 13) and praise that Fiends, Furies, Gods, all yield to thee, and Death hath set his captive free ( Devils, Furies, Gods, all give way to you, and death released his prisoners ). The last scene of the drama is also a standard piece full of music: Accompanied by a symphonia that is completely permeated by the style of Jean-Philippe Rameau's transformation scenes, Apollo and the nine muses descend for a divertissement . In the only secco recitative of the entire score From high Olympus' top ( From the summit of the high Olympus ) the god announces himself, and his subsequent short song Tune your harps, all ye Nine ( Tune the harps, you all nine , no . 14), leads straight into a dance that Handel calls "Ballo Primo" (no. 15). A gavotte (“L'Ultimo Ballo”, No. 16) develops into a short final chorus, which starts with Triumph, thou son of Jove, triumph, happy pair, in love! ( Triumph, you son of Jupiter, triumph, you happy couple, in love!, No. 17) Praise Hercules, Alcestis and Admetus.

orchestra

Transverse flute , two oboes , bassoon , two trumpets , strings, basso continuo .

Discography

  • L'oiseau-Lyre (Decca) DSLO 581 (recording 1979, release 1980): Emma Kirkby (Calliope), Patrizia Kwella (soprano), Judith Nelson (soprano), Margaret Cable (Syrene), Paul Elliott (Apollo, attendant), David Thomas (Charon)
Academy of Ancient Music ; Dir. Christopher Hogwood (57 min)
  • Absalon LCHD 897 (1998): Stéphanie Révidat (Calliope), Roxanne Comiotto (soprano), Jean Delescluse (Apollo, attendant), François Bazola (Charon)
Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu; Dir. Franck-Emmanuel Comte
  • Chandos CHAN 0788 (2012): Lucy Crowe (Calliope), Elizabeth Weisberg (soprano), Sian Menna (Syrene), Benjamin Hulett (Apollo, Attendant), Andrew Foster-Williams (Charon)
Early Opera Company; Dir. Christian Curnyn (63 min)

literature

  • Anthony Hicks : Theater Music Vol. I . Translated from the English by Gery Bramall. L'oiseau-Lyre (Decca) DSLO 581, London 1980.
  • Christine Martin: Alceste, HWV 45. In: Annette Landgraf and David Vickers: The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia . Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-88192-0 (English)
  • Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Stage works. In: Walter Eisen (ed.): Handel manual . Volume 1 Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0610-8 . Unchanged reprint: Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7618-0610-4 .
  • Editing of the Halle Handel Edition : Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (ed.): Handel manual . Volume 4. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1985, ISBN 3-7618-0717-1 .
  • Albert Scheibler: All 53 stage works by Georg Friedrich Handel, opera guide. Edition Cologne, Lohmar / Rheinland 1995, ISBN 3-928010-05-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anthony Hicks: Theater Music Vol. II . Translated from the English by Henning Weber. L'oiseau-Lyre (Decca) DSLO 598, London 1982.
  2. ^ Editing management of the Halle Handel Edition : Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (ed.): Handel manual . Volume 4. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1985, ISBN 3-7618-0717-1 , p. 419.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m David Vickers: Handel. Alceste . From the English by Bettina Reinke-Welsh, Chandos, CHAN 0788, London 2012, p. 16 ff.
  4. ↑ P. Harper: Tobias Smollett and the Practice of Medicine. In: The Yale journal of biology and medicine. Volume 2, Number 6, July 1930, pp. 408-416, PMID 21433464 , PMC 2606287 (free full text).
  5. ↑ a b c Anthony Hicks: . Theater Music Vol I . Translated from the English by Gery Bramall, L'oiseau-Lyre (Decca) DSLO 581, London 1980.
  6. ^ Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Stage works. In: Walter Eisen (ed.): Handel manual . Volume 1. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0610-8 . Unchanged reprint, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7618-0610-4 , p. 511
  7. ^ Paul Henry Lang : Georg Friedrich Handel. His life, his style and his position in English intellectual and cultural life. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Basel 1979, ISBN 3-7618-0567-5 , p. 455.
  8. ^ Albert Scheibler: Complete 53 stage works by Georg Friedrich Handel, opera guide. , Edition Köln, Lohmar / Rheinland 1995, ISBN 3-928010-05-0 , p. 71.
  9. ^ Karl Ernst Adolf von Hoff : Chronicle of the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. First part. In: History of the natural changes in the earth's surface documented by tradition , Justus Perthes, Gotha 1840, p. 405 ff.
  10. ↑ Chronicle of the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. First part. . books.google.de. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  11. ^ Robert Anderson : The life of Tobias Smollett, MD, with critical observations on his works , Fourth Edition, Edinburgh 1803, p. 33
  12. ^ The life of Tobias Smollett . books.google.de. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  13. ^ David Charlton, Sarah Hibberd: My Father Was a Poor Parisian Musician: A Memoir (1756) concerning Rameau, Handel's Library and Sallé . In Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Vol. 128, No. 2, Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 161 ff.
  14. ↑ Winton Dean : Handel's Operas, 1726-1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006. Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 , p. 277
  15. ^ Editing management of the Halle Handel Edition : Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (ed.): Handel manual . Volume 4. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1985, ISBN 3-7618-0717-1 , p. 434.