Alcina

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Work data
Original title: Alcina
Title page of the libretto, London 1735

Title page of the libretto, London 1735

Shape: Opera seria
Original language: Italian
Music: georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto : unknown, L'isola di Alcina (1728)
Literary source: Ludovico Ariosto , Orlando furioso (1516)
Premiere: April 16, 1735
Place of premiere: Theater Royal, Covent Garden , London
Playing time: 3 ¼ hours
Place and time of the action: Alcina's magic island in the Mediterranean, in the last third of the 8th century
people
  • Alcina, a sorceress ( soprano )
  • Ruggiero, a knight ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Morgana, Alcina's sister (soprano)
  • Bradamante, Ruggiero's bride, disguised as her own brother "Ricciardo" ( alto )
  • Oronte, Alcina's general, Morgana's lover ( tenor )
  • Melisso, Bradamante's confidante ( bass )
  • Oberto, son of the paladin Astolfo, looking for his father (soprano)
  • Ladies, pages, servants, young knights, magical creatures, spirits of the underworld (choir and ballet)
Rich's Glory or his Triumphant Entry into Covent-Garden
John Rich took over the newly built Covent-Garden Theater in 1732 and performed very successfully plays and pantomimes, but also the Beggar's Opera . Handel's works have also been running there since 1735.

Alcina ( HWV 34) is an opera ( Dramma per musica ) in three acts by Georg Friedrich Händel and his third, based on Ariost's Orlando furioso . After Ariodante , Alcina was the second opera that was no longer intended for the King's Theater on Haymarket. Just like this, it is a ballet opera, because in Covent Garden Handel had the Marie Sallé ballet troupe available to Handel , which, however, left at the end of the season (summer 1735).

Emergence

Handel's first personal letter in English that we have received is from August 1734. In it he apologizes to Sir Wyndham Knatchbull for not being able to pay him a visit, as he is

"[...] being engaged with Mr. Rich to carry on the opera in Covent Garden [...]"

"[...] working with Mr. Rich on a continuation of the operas in Covent Garden [...]"

- Georg Friedrich Handel : Letter to Wyndham Knatchbull, August 27, 1734

Until then, Handel had performed all of his operas in the King's Theater on Haymarket, but lost this home to the newly founded Opera of the Nobility , a company under the patronage of the Prince of Wales . This had to hold its first season in the comparatively uncomfortable theater in Lincoln's Inn Fields , but was able to move to the King's Theater in 1734 when the lease that Handel had concluded with the impresario Johann Jacob Heidegger after the collapse of the first Royal Academy of Music , expired after five years. John Rich's offer to Handel to use the Covent Garden Theater , which was only rebuilt in 1732, on two evenings a week, not only enabled Handel to continue to perform operas. The large stage of the house was just as suitable for oratorios . In addition, a small choir (maybe six or eight singers) was employed at the established theater with daily performances, because vocal music was often featured in the plays - and, coincidence or intent, Rich had the famous dancer Marie Sallé and her company in the same season under contract. Because the rival aristocratic opera could rely on the services of the greatest of all castrati , Farinelli , and his success, Handel needed special attractions in order to attract an audience.

The result of this was that the 1734-35 season was one of its most splendid. The five operas he gave this season - two new ones ( Ariodante and Alcina ), two revivals ( Il Pastor fido and Arianna in Creta ) and a pasticcio ( Oreste ) - all contained special dance music for the sallé. In addition, Handel performed his oratorios Esther and Deborah again during Lent of 1735 . Also Athalia had its London premiere with the innovation that Handel played the organ concerts between the acts.

Most important for posterity from this season is the excellent musical and dramatic quality of the new operas Ariodante and Alcina . The challenge of competition and the struggle for audience approval have driven Handel to the richest flowering of his musical genius since he composed Giulio Cesare in Egitto , Tamerlano and Rodelinda in 1724 and 1725. This was now the peak that he could no longer surpass in the field of opera. The operas after Alcina certainly have many attractions, but it was only the large series of English choral works that motivated him to achieve new heights , beginning with The Alexander's Feast in 1736.

Alcina was the last opera of the current season. Presumably Handel wrote it while the season was underway. It is not known when he began it; the only date noted in the autograph is its completion: Fine dell 'Opera | GF Trade | April 8 | 1735. That was eight days before the premiere and must therefore be the time when Handel had finished with the orchestration, “filling in the score,” as he himself called it, and checking it.

libretto

The libretto is based on L'Isola di Alcina (Rome 1728, Teatro Capranica ), which was originally set to music by Riccardo Broschi , the brother of the famous castrato Farinelli, who in turn was the figurehead of the rival aristocratic opera on Haymarket. Handel possibly got a copy on his trip to Italy in 1729. The author of this text book is unknown. The dedication in it to the impresario Giuseppe Polvini Faliconti is no reason to assume that he is the librettist. The attribution to Antonio Fanzaglia , which is often found in literature, is incorrect: Fanzaglia had arranged the libretto by the unknown author for the performance of the opera by Broschi in Parma (1729) under the title Bradamante nell'isola d'Alcina . We do not know who, if any, was the editor of Handel's draft. Since he has always been in the lead in such matters, it is quite possible that he himself modified the textbook. With Alcina, however, the changes are fewer and less radical than usual with him: a tribute to the good template. However, these are significant as examples of his technique of making the course of the drama more compelling.

The story, like that of Ariodante , has its origins in Ludovico Ariostos Orlando furioso , but while Ariodante closely follows the episode of the poem, the text of L'Isola di Alcina takes certain characters and ideas from him, but processes them in new ways . That is the fundamental difference between these two works. In Ariodante it comes to the purely human intrigue while Alcina , in which it also comes to human feelings, a magic opera is full of supernatural phenomena, just as it pleased the audience of the Baroque.

Handel's three operas based on Ludovico Ariostos Orlando furioso were written over a period of three years, and although we cannot know whether he actually read the epic himself, the enthusiasm with which he turned to these libretti is evident. Orlando , Ariodante and Alcina suggest a sincere appreciation for the spirit of this unique and influential poem of its time.

Whether or not Handel knew the Ariosto, Orlando furioso was well known among eighteenth-century readers, and his mix of heroic, fantastic, and comic episodes was very appealing at a time that literature of the past revered and you often dedicated tributes in the form of parodies or burlesques . His influence on English writers extends well beyond Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene , and we find receptions of the material throughout the prose , poetry, and dramas of the Baroque.

An Ariosto opera combines magic with romance and must therefore have been an ideal choice for John Rich and his new theater in Covent Garden, where the repertoire has been geared towards the greatest possible variety and diversity since it opened. Part of the Alcina's success was certainly due to the fact that the play was ideally suited to the stage on which it was first performed. The expectations, not only of the audience, but also of the management, must have been met with this work, a refined mixture and a wide range of all registers available to music theater, which nevertheless remains committed to the spirit of the Italian text by Ariost.

The opening of the Theater Royal, Covent Garden, in 1732, was the culmination of the career of one of the most successful actors and impresarios in London at the time. These days John Rich is perhaps best known for producing the incredibly successful beggar opera by John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch , which contemporaries said made gay rich and rich gay , but for contemporary audiences he was the enduring star ( under his stage name Lun ) in a long line of pantomimes at his theater in Lincoln's Inn Fields . All of his productions were designed in such a way that elements of pantomime, song and dance could be integrated, the stage design and the machinery were also imaginatively included, as well as changing lighting on the stage.

Rich wanted to continue on this successful path, which involved more than ever before in the action on the stage, even when he commissioned Edward Shepherd to build the new theater in Covent Garden, which then opened its doors on December 7, 1732 with a Performance of William Congreves The Way of the World opened to design. Although the repertoire was now a bit more extensive than last at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater, the impresario was smart enough to stick to the tried and tested concept with the greatest possible variety on the stage, which brought him money and entertainment for the audience. In addition to the efficient stage machinery, what was remarkable about the new theater was that there was closer contact between the audience and the stage than in the previous London theaters, while at the same time the English practice that the main stage was laterally enclosed by the auditorium was maintained . Behind the fore stage, which was framed with figures from the tragedy and comedy by the Venetian painter Jacopo Amigoni , extended the perspective of the main stage, the stage setting of which could be changed by the moving scenery under the eyes of the audience. This underlined the effect of the action and reinforced the illusion for the audience that they were in the middle of a strange world, which was the essence of stage drama in the 18th century.

In this sense, the Covent Garden Theater was certainly the most democratic of all theaters in which Handel had previously worked. There were boxes like in every other contemporary theater building, but there was not the same atmosphere of aristocratic exclusivity as was the case in the feudal theaters of continental Europe or, in a modified form, the King's Theater on Haymarket, where so many of his operas have already been were given. These were the factors which, along with the modernity of his productions and the depth of the stage, aroused the admiration of foreign visitors, and it was fortunate in the history of music that the Covent Garden Theater became so the breeding ground for Handel's work on the English oratorio. Its performances were now, from the business point of view, free from the patronage of the aristocracy, whose plaything the Italian opera in London had hitherto been.

On the face of it, Alcina was indeed like any other Italian opera seria : Handel was writing again for high-ranking Italian singers, such as Anna Strada, who was becoming increasingly popular with audiences and above all as a result of Handel's confident feeling that he had to put it into practice to bring out their voice in the best possible way. The real star, however, was the castrato Giovanni Carestini . Charles Burney wrote about him:

“His voice was at first a powerful and clear soprano, which afterwards changed into the fullest, finest, and deepest counter-tenor that has perhaps ever been heard […] Carestini's person was tall, beautiful, and majestic. He was a very animated and intelligent actor, and having a considerable portion of enthusiasm in his composition, with a lively and inventive imagination, he rendered every thing he sung interesting by good taste, energy, and judicious embellishments. He manifested great agility in the execution of difficult divisions from the chest in a most articulate and admirable manner. It was the opinion of Hasse, as well as of many other eminent professors, that whoever had not heard Carestini was inacquainted with the most perfect style of singing. "

“His voice was first a strong and clear soprano, later he had the fullest, finest and deepest counter-tenor that could ever be heard […] Carestini's figure was tall, beautiful and majestic. He was a very dedicated and intelligent actor and since he was endowed with a good dose of enthusiasm for composition coupled with a lively and resourceful imagination, he made everything he sang interesting through good taste, energy and clever adornments. He had a great ability to make the chest voice wonderful with great clarity, even in difficult areas. In the opinion of Hasse and many other famous teachers, anyone who has not heard Carestini was not yet familiar with the most perfect singing style. "

- Charles Burney : A General History of Music , London 1789

Appears on the other side Alcina in their theatrical context as a very different kind of opera compared to those audiences in 1720 he and early 1730 years he , during his great time at the King's Theater, was used by him years ago. It is not about the quarrels of any dynasty, intrigues and political ambition, intertwined with the conflicts of private passions, but in some ways the opera seems more French than Italian to us when it comes to the moments of magical transformation that gave Rich the opportunity to bring the new technical possibilities of the theater in Covent Garden to use.

Apart from the equipment and the scenic effects (we have not received any set designs for any Handel opera), Alcina connects another characteristic with the taste of the actor-manager John Rich: the ballet. Dancing has been a crucial part of his previous pantomime productions since the opera house opened. Since there was no Urglish ballet tradition, most of the time on the London stage was danced by French and Italian performers. Several of them had also been hired for Rich's productions at Lincoln's Inn Fields and Covent Garden.

The highlight of this was certainly the engagement of the famous and most accomplished dancer of her time, Marie Sallé . Influenced by the naturalistic acting art of David Garrick and the "pantomimes" of the English dance master John Weaver , she created a new type of dance, committed to naturalness and emotional expression, during her engagements in London - a revolution against the prevailing French ballet, which was frozen in circumscribed forms . Her new theories about choreography, combined with her practical experience on the stage of the Académie Royale de musique in Paris, influenced the great French master Jean-Georges Noverre and with it the entire tradition of classical European dance.

Since the Sallé was hired for the 1733 season, she was already a familiar face to the London public and was enthusiastically promoted by Rich. In 1725, at the age of 18, she made her debut in Colley Cibber's Love’s Last Shift at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater, after first encountering London and Handel in a Rinaldo performance in June 1717 as a ten-year-old child . It became the mime attraction in London, and its popularity in England led Voltaire to reproach his compatriots for their current disregard for their talents. Her greatest success on the British Isles was certainly the ballet pantomime Pygmalion and in it the presentation of the whole range of her revolutionary ideas of gesture and costume:

«Elle a osé paroître dans cette Entrée sans panier, sans jupe, sans corps et échevelée, et sans aucun ornement sur sa tête; elle n'estoit vêtuë avec son corset et un jupon, que d'une simple robbe de mousseline tournée en draperie, et ajustée sur le modele d'une Statuë Grecque. »

"She dared to appear without a crinoline , skirt or bodice and with her hair down. Besides a corset and petticoat , she wore a simple muslin dress that she had wrapped around her like a Greek statue."

- Mercure de France , Paris, April 1734

In the ballet of Alcina she appeared as Cupid, in a male costume, which was perceived as unseemly and indecent. At one of the last performances it was whistled for it and the Abbé Antoine-François Prévost d'Exiles, author of the famous novel Manon Lescaut , had to write in his weekly Le Pour et le Contre (The pros and cons) :

"Mademoiselle Sallé avoit composé un ballet, dans lequel elle se chargea du rôle du Cupidon, qu'elle entreprît de danser en habit d'homme. Cet habit, dit-on, lui sied mal, e fût apparemment la cause de sa disgrace. »

“Miss Sallé had created a ballet scene. In it she played the role of Cupid and deigned to dance in men's clothes. This, it is said, looked very bad on her and was obviously the reason why she fell out of favor. "

- Antoine-François Prévost : Le Pour et le Contre , Paris 1735

The rejection of her was obviously great enough that she felt compelled to return to Paris, where she soon became the subject of heated controversy in French cultural life, but eventually became the grande dame of French ballet.

The uproar over the Sallé was not enough to make the Alcina a failure. The capricious London audience recognized Handel's mastery and, if the anonymous writer in the Universal Spectator is to be believed, saw a deeper meaning in the play than a mere conversation à la Rich:

“The Opera goes no farther than the breaking of Alcina's Enchantment and contains an agreeable Allegory […] The Character of Alcina's Beauty, and Inconstancy proves the short Duration of all sublimary Enjoyments, which are lost as soon as attain'd […]”

“The opera, a soothing allegory, is about nothing more or less than the breaking of Alcina's magic power […] The character of Alcina's beauty and its inconstancy prove the short duration of earthly pleasures, which, barely achieved, are quickly lost again [...] "

- The Universal Spectator , London, July 5, 1735

Mary Pendarves , his lifelong admirer and neighbor on Brook Street, wrote to her mother about the Alcina's first rehearsal the day before in Handel's house:

“[…] I think it is the best he ever made, but I have thought so of so many , that I will not say positively 'tis the finest , but' tis so fine I have not words to describe it […] Whilst Mr. Handel was playing his part, I could not help thinking of him a necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments. "

“[…] I think it's the best he's ever done, but I've thought that so many times. But it's really the best and so well done that I can't find words to describe it. [...] When Handel played from it, I couldn't help thinking of a necromancer in the midst of the spirits he had conjured up. "

- Mary Pendarves : Letter to Mary Granville, London, April 12, 1735

After Handel was more or less finished with the score, he added four more scenes in which he introduced a completely new character: the boy Oberto. He is on the island to look for his father, whom Alcina has turned into a lion. In an extremely dramatic scene, Alcina tries to force Oberto to kill the lion, but the boy recognizes his father and turns against Alcina. These changes demonstrate Handel's ability to make full use of the talents and abilities present in his singing ensemble. Oberto was sung by the boy soprano William Savage, who in April 1735 in the role of Joas in Athalia had obviously made such an impression that Handel created a role especially for him in Alcina .

Alcina premiered in Covent Garden on April 16, 1735 and had a very successful series of eighteen performances, the last on July 2. Presumably to compensate Handel for their visits to the aristocratic opera, the king and queen of the opera Alcina took special care :

"This opera, which was always performed by command of their Majesties, till the King went to Hanover, and then by command of her Majesty only, till the close of the season, July 2d, sustaining eighteen successive representations."

"This opera, which was performed every time at the request of the Majesties until the King went to Hanover and then at the request of Her Majesty alone, saw eighteen performances in a row by the end of the season on July 2nd."

- Charles Burney : A General History of Music , London 1789

It was to be Handel's last great opera success.

Cast of the premiere

With Alcina , Handel's Primo uomo also ended :

"Yesterday Signor Caristina, a celebrated Singer in the late Opera's in Covent Garden Theater, embarqued on Board a Ship for Venice."

"Yesterday, Signor Caristina, the famous singer who appeared in the most recent operas in the Covent Garden Theater, embarked for Venice."

- Daily Post , London, July 10, 1735

With that, Handel had lost his only weapon against Farinelli. Giovanni Carestini sang again in London from 1739–1741, but no longer in Handel performances. Given the financial losses over the past two seasons (estimated at £ 9,000 for Handel), all he could do was back down:

“Mr. Handel goes to spend the Summer in Germany, but comes back against Winter, and is to have Concerts of Musick next Season, but no Opera's. "

“Handel will spend the summer in Germany, but return for winter. And he will offer concerts in the next season, but not operas. "

- General Evening Post , London, May 20, 1735

(Handel did not go to Germany that summer, but only went to Aachen for a cure in 1737 ).

There were five more performances of the Alcina in the 1736/37 season (three performances in November 1736 and two in June 1737), with some adverse changes. The dances (which Sallé had left London) and the chorus Dall'orror di notte cieca (No. 39) were canceled. Seven arias were reduced to their A section, which was absolutely unusual for Handel. The part of Morgana, which after Cecilia Young's departure (she married the composer Thomas Augustin Arne in 1737 and later appeared again under his name with Handel) , was taken over by Rosa Negri , Maria Caterina's sister, by a third deeper. Ama sospira (No. 21) was omitted and the aria Tornami a vagheggiar (No. 15) was transferred to Alcina completely inappropriately. Almost everything that Ruggiero has to sing has been transposed one to one and a half tones higher in order to match the voice of the new singer, the soprano Gioacchino Conti, known as " Gizziello ". Handel's confidence in Rosa Negri's abilities, however, seemed to have increased over the course of the season, as he gave her two additional arias (from Arianna in Creta and Admeto ) in the June 1737 performances.

At least two performances of the Alcina in February and August in Braunschweig under the direction of Georg Caspar Schürmann with German recitatives and the dancer Sophie Amalia Bonnefond are documented for 1738 , after which the work, like all other Handel operas, disappeared from the scene until it was on September 5th 1928 was revived in Leipzig by the conductor Oskar Braun. Here Alcina was given twice and in German (text version: Herman Roth) with the choreography by Erna Abendroth-Ihrke.

On June 13, 1992, Alcina was performed again for the first time in the original language and in historical performance practice in the Goethe Theater Bad Lauchstädt . The orchestra "Sol sol la sol" from Innsbruck played under the direction of Howard Arman and the dance ensemble "L'autre pas", Berlin danced.

action

Historical and literary background

Ludovico Ariosto's epic Orlando furioso ( The mad Roland ), first published in 1516 and then in its final form in 1532 and soon afterwards known throughout Europe, contains within the framework story - the struggle of the Christians against the pagans - numerous independent individual episodes that deal with the deeds traveling knights and their love adventures. One of these episodes tells of the sorceress Alcina.

first act

Alcina receives Ruggiero, Nicolò dell'Abbate , around 1550

A place framed by steep mountains. Bradamante and Melisso are looking for Alcina's castle and meet her sister Morgana, who immediately falls in love with Bradamante (who is disguised as a man and pretends to be her brother Ricciardo) ( O s'apre al riso No. 1). Alcina's magnificent palace appears. Morgana leads the two strangers to the palace, where Ruggiero sits at Alcina's side, surrounded by a choir of knights and women who greet the newcomers ( Questo è il cielo de 'contenti No. 2). They ask to be allowed to stay until the sea has calmed down. Alcina allows it and asks Ruggiero to tell of her love ( Di ', cor mio, quanto t'amai No. 7).

Oberto, who is in Alcina's entourage, asks the two of them if they have heard from his father. He was stranded on the island with him, but did not find him again ( Chi m'insegna il caro padre? No. 8). Bradamante asks Ruggiero if he recognizes her. He sees a resemblance to Ricciardo, but denies that he has an obligation to his fiancée Bradamante. He loves Alcina and mocks Bradamante ( Di te mi rido No. 9).

Morgana's lover Oronte accuses “Ricciardo” of having stolen his lover from him. Morgana arrives and takes Bradamante's side. Bradamante explains to him that he is tormented by jealousy and to her that she feels the power of love; Feelings that move her ( È gelosia, forza è d'amore, No. 10).

Anteroom to Alcina's apartments. Oronte, disaffected by Morgana's deception, tries to convince Ruggiero that Alcina's love is only hypocrisy. He warns him not to trust the woman ( Semplicetto! A donna credi? No. 12).

When Alcina meets Ruggiero, he reproaches her for being unfaithful to Ricciardo's. She swears her loyalty ( Sì, son quella No. 13). Bradamante reveals her true identity to Ruggiero, but he does not believe her and assumes - irritated by Orontes warning - that Ricciardo is after Alcina ( La bocca vaga, quell'occhio nero no. 14).

Morgana warns Bradamante that Alcina wants to turn her or Ricciardo into an animal at the insistence of the jealous Ruggiero. Bradamante swears her love to Morgana for tactical reasons, and Morgana in turn declares her love ( Tornami a vagheggiar No. 15).

Second act

A magnificent hall in Alcina's palace. Ruggiero celebrates his love for Alcina ( Col celarvi a chi v'ama un momento No. 16). Melisso (in the shape of Atlantes, Ruggiero's educator) insults Ruggiero as being effeminate. He gives him a ring and uses it to banish Alcina's magic over Ruggiero. The hall is transformed into an ugly place and Melisso into its actual shape. Ruggiero comes to his senses ( Qual portento mi richiama No. 17). Melisso explains his plan to him: he shouldn't reveal anything to Alcina, go hunting and flee in the process. Melisso urges Ruggiero to think of Bradamante, who suffers from broken love ( Pensa a chi geme d'amor piagata No. 18).

Ruggiero asks Bradamante's forgiveness but still thinks she is Ricciardo. He believes Ricciardo will only look like Bradamante if Alcina is cast again. Bradamante wants revenge for his cruelty ( Vorrei vendicarmi No. 19). Ruggiero is unsettled because he does not know whether he is seeing a deception or actually his lover ( Mi lunsinga il dolce affetto no.20 ).

An open space with the gardens in the background. Alcina tries to turn Ricciardo into an animal, but is stopped by Morgana. Morgana assures that Ricciardo loves her and is not a rival to Ruggiero ( Ama, sospira no. 21). Ruggiero tells Alcina that he wants to go hunting. She allows it, but with a bad feeling. Ruggiero declares that he is loyal to his beloved - but actually means Bradamante ( Mio bel tesoro No. 22).

Oberto comes to Alcina and asks her to take him to his father. She promises him. He vacillates between hope and fear ( Tra speme e timore No. 23). Oronte tells Alcina that she has been betrayed and that Ruggiero is preparing to escape. Alcina is desperate to be abandoned ( Ah! Mio cor! Schernito sei! No. 24).

Oronte also tries to convince Morgana that she has been betrayed, but she doesn't believe him and walks away. Oronte reviled them ( è un folle, è un vile affetto no.25 ).

Ruggiero asks Bradamante's forgiveness. They embrace while Morgana overhears them. She is outraged and warns the lovers that Alcina will punish them. Ruggiero sings about the beauties of nature, which will soon disappear again when the magic of Alcina's island is banished ( Verdi prati, selve almene No. 26).

Basement room for magic . Alcina is desperate that Ruggiero only played his love for her, especially because she still loves him herself. Their magical powers have also faded ( Ombre pallide No. 27).

Third act

Bradamante and the sorceress Melissa, Gustave Doré , 1878

Lobby of the palace. Morgana, who now knows Bradamante's true identity, tries to regain Orontes' favor by reminding him of his oath of allegiance. But he pretends not to love her anymore. Morgana asks for forgiveness ( Credete al mio dolore ). When Oronte is alone, he admits his love for her ( Un momento di contento No. 30).

Alcina confronts Ruggiero, who now openly admits that he wants to go with his bride Bradamante. She threatens him and yet admits that she cannot harm him because she loves him ( Ma quando tornerai No. 32).

Melisso and Bradamante come to Ruggiero and tell him that the island is surrounded by magic animals and armed troops. Ruggiero has to go into battle, but at the same time is afraid of leaving Bradamante alone ( Sta nell'Ircana No. 33).

Meanwhile Bradamante wants to release the magic that lies over the island and restore life to everyone ( All'alma fedel No. 34).

Oronte reports to Alcina that Ruggiero won the fight and is now threatening the island. Alcina mourns ( Mi restano le lagrime no.35 ).

You can see Alcina's palace and the urn that contains Alcina's magic. Oberto believes that he will see his father again soon. Alcina has overheard him and lets a tame lion out of a cage, which lies down in front of Oberto. She gives Oberto a spear and tells him to kill the lion, but Oberto recognizes him as his father. When Alcina wants to kill the animal himself, he points the spear at her ( Barbara! Io ben lo so no. 37).

Bradamante and Ruggiero meet Alcina one last time. Alcina asks and threatens to stay, but her magical powers are gone ( Non è amor, nè gelosia No. 38). Ruggiero goes to the urn to destroy it with his magic ring. Alcina tries to stop him, whereupon Bradamante tries. Morgana tells them to stop. When Melisso and Oronte join them, Alcina and Morgana are lost. Ruggiero breaks the urn and the whole scene collapses. The enchanted people transform themselves back and gather to form a choir ( Dall'orror di notte cieca No. 39). After a ballet, the final choir is intoned ( Dopo tante amare pene No. 42).

music

Handel makes excellent use of the ensemble of singers available to him this season to develop the characters and personalities of the drama over the course of the opera and to provide them with appropriate music. Even in the supporting roles, the music is lavish and full of varied melodies. Only Melisso, Bradamante's old tutor, received only one but beautiful aria, which was written for the German Gustav Waltz , who was a good, if not outstanding, bass player.

The flighty character of the Morgana, originally sung by Cecilia Young , is introduced by her bright and light opening aria 'O s'apre al riso (No. 1), which is full of happy twists and turns from Handel's Italian period (1706-1710 ) recall. An even more direct reference to the music from this period emerges in her aria Tornami a vagheggiar (No. 15), which concludes the first act. The main melody is taken directly from the beginning of an aria from the cantata O come chiare e belle (1708, HWV 143), which begins with the same words. But in the earlier version the melody is only in the vocal part, while the orchestra has completely different thematic material in its ritornelles . In Alcina , Handel builds the whole aria out of this melody and always finds new ways to lengthen and vary it. The result is particularly radiant and seductive: one of the most haunting and unforgettable arias that Handel ever wrote. In Ama, sospira (no. 21) , Morgana's tone turns to melancholy: she still hopes for the love of the supposed “Ricciardo” (Bradamante in disguise), and when she can no longer have this hope, she tries pathetic things Plea ( Credete al mio dolore no. 30) to win Orontes' affection. In each of these two arias, Handel uses a solo string instrument, first a violin (written for Pietro Castrucci ) and then a violoncello (for Francisco Caporale ). These solos are set in the high register to play around the high vocal line.

The role of Oronte, written for the promising young tenor John Beard , is rather limited in terms of expression, but his three arias very cleverly explore different approaches to writing in the new, lighter style of Handel's younger contemporaries, although his style of writing remains, as expected, very individual . Bradamante also only has three arias to sing. Her first two make full use of the flexible and deep alto voice of Maria Caterina Negri, who specializes in trouser roles , to portray the person of the brave girl disguised as the knight Ricciardo. Her last aria All'alma fedel (No. 34) is of a softer kind when, left alone on the stage, she thinks with the warmth of the loving woman of the fulfillment of her longing for Ruggiero. Handel's enthusiasm for the talent of the young William Savage is evident in Oberto's three well-contrasting arias: the tender pathos when he tries to find his father ( Chi m'insegna il caro padre No. 8), the hesitant hope as Alcina makes promises to him ( Tra speme e timore no. 23) and his flashing anger when he realizes her betrayal ( Barbara! io ben lo sò no. 37).

The development of the characters as in these roles is even more noticeable in those of Ruggiero and Alcina, where the vocal virtuosity or the lack of it always has a dramatic function. Ruggiero's first aria Di te mi rido (No. 9) is not very heroic : under the debilitating influence of Alcina, he acts carelessly and carelessly, while maintaining a certain charm. In La bocca vaga (No. 14) the unusual intervals in the singing correspond with the piercing string figures and convey a touch of irritation. But with the powerful cavatina Qual portento, mi richiama (No. 14, another borrowing from the cantata O come, chiare e belle ), when he realizes the real desolation of Alcina's island, there is a change in his appearance. In the delicious sequences of Mi lusinga il dolce affetto (No. 20), some of which are borrowed from a spiritual cantata by Telemann, he remembers his love for Bradamante, and in Mio bel tesoro (No. 22), in which his short and thus If implausible phrases are ironically echoed by two recorders, he pretends to Alcina to regret his behavior so far in order to keep her believing that he is wooing her. "I am constantly in my love ..." he sings into her face, but aside "... but not to you!". Ruggiero's greatest number, however, is Verdi prati (No. 26), a sarabande in E major of painfully nostalgic sweetness. This exquisite aria in rondo form was initially not at all to Carestini's taste:

Verdi prati , which was constantly encored during the whole run of Alcina , was, at first, sent back to HANDEL by Carestini, as unfit for him to sing; upon which he went, in a great rage, to his house, and in a way which few composers, except HANDEL, ever ventured to accost a first-singer , cries out: 'You toc! don't I know better as your seluf, vaat is pest for you to sing? If you vill not sing all de song vaat I give you, I will not pay you a stiver. '

“The aria Verdi prati , which one always asked to hear more than once with every performance of the opera Alcina , was initially sent back to Handel'n by Carestini because he did not know how to sing it. He went to him full of rage, and in a tone in which few composers, apart from Handel, ever addressed a first singer, he snapped at him with the words: “You dog! Don't I have to know better than you what you can sing? If you don't want to sing the arias that I give you, I won't pay you a stöver . "(Translation: Johann Joachim Eschenburg, 1785)"

- Charles Burney : Sketch of the life of handel , London 1785

The expression "sent back" indicates the point in time when this event took place and explains Carestini's displeasure at least in part: It was customary to send the music of the arias to the singers in advance in the form of a piano reduction to study, as soon as these were composed and often also orchestrated. Most of the recitatives were not written either. So it is not surprising how Carestini reacted to this simple melody with its narrow vocal range. Little did he know that this simplicity and the unusual shape ( rondo ) were precisely calculated for this situation, and that the piece fit perfectly into the dramatic context: Ruggiero knows that he will soon leave the meadows and forests of the Isle of the Blessed forever must, but in his heart he will return there.

In his last aria, Ruggiero shows his true, heroic character again and Handel demonstratively ignores the obvious meaning of the words: they describe a tigress who is torn between the alternatives of attacking the hunter or guarding her young. He writes music with the greatest confidence, adding high horns in G to give the orchestral texture a bright color. The elaborate melody, spun over slowly changing harmonies, is one of the most thorough imitations of the new "Neapolitan" style of Handel. Perhaps this was meant as a conciliatory gesture towards Carestini.

We find a sign of a different kind of transformation in the role of Alcina, whose music is presented with even greater inventiveness and emotional depth. This part was written for Anna Strada del Pò, whom Handel had known for many years and of whose abilities he was perfectly clear. Just as Ruggiero outgrows his minority in the course of the opera, so Alcina loses the self-confidence of the experienced seductress: she becomes more and more desperate and pathetic as she abandons her magical powers. Her love for Ruggiero is a positive force but contradicts her dark nature. This love ennobles and destroys them at the same time. Her two arias in the first act show different approaches to her seductive art : the first, Di ', cor mio, quanto t'amai (No. 7), is gently flattering, the second, Sì, son quella! Non più bella (No. 13), accusatory-offended. Ah! mio cor (No. 24) in the second act takes place on a completely different level: the string accompaniment in the A section of the aria, consisting of hesitant staccato chords that maintain long dissonances, points to fear on the one hand and pain on the other Ruggiero's betrayal of her. The threats of revenge in the fast middle section are no longer persuasive.

Complete despair sets in with the only, but large, Accompagnato recitative Ah! Ruggiero crudel (No. 27), where, after a series of extraordinary modulations, Handel leaves his voice unaccompanied (apart from a few colla parte violins) when Alcina orders her spirits to obey her in vain. In Ombre pallide (No. 28), resignation gains the upper hand: the sinuous lines of flowing sixteenth-note passages in the strings, which irregularly roll towards and away from the vocal line, spread fear and terror. In Ma quando tornerai (No. 32), Alcina briefly recalls her old strength, but grief catches up with her again in the slow and intense B part of the aria. After all, in Mi restano le lagrime (No. 35), she is beyond hope. Here, too, shows Handel's genius for evoking comparable feelings with completely different means. All that remains for Alcina is a bluff , but her fate is sealed. In the tense trio Non è amor, ne gelosia (No. 38), Alcina makes one last attempt to dissuade Ruggiero from his plan to leave the island, but in vain: her urn is smashed and in a profound chorus ( Dall'orror di notte cieca No. 39) the enchanted knights, including Oberto's father Astolfo, are redeemed. (Handel takes the music for this last aria from his early cantata Apollo e Dafne (1709, HWV 122) when Apollo is watching Dafne being transformed into a laurel tree. Here one metamorphosis may have reminded him of the other.)

For the Parisian Marie Sallé and her company, the dances are clearly written in the French style, as evidenced by their French movement titles. Handel seems to have been clear at first about how many dances he needed. The enchanting musette and the minuet in the overture were part of the opera's beginning anyway, although they may not have been danced either. The balli in the first and second act, however, were added later. Ruggieros Entertainment at the beginning of the first act originally consisted of just one choir Questo é il cielo (No. 2b), but was replaced before the premiere by a quieter version of this choir (No. 2a) and four dances in related keys. (He later re-used the music of the discarded piece for the first movement of the organ concerto in F major, op. 4 No. 4 , HWV 292). For the end of the second act, Handel simply took the extensive ballet of good and bad dreams from his previous opera Ariodante ; there it was originally intended for a similar situation, but probably not realized. It is a varied ballet, with a melt-in Entreé beginning and ending in E major with a strong Combat with hearty Hornpipe fighting each rhythm of where good and bad dreams.

Success and criticism

“Their Majesties intend being at the Opera in Covent-Garden To-night; and we hear the new Opera will exceed any composition of Mr. Handel's hitherto performed. "

"Her Majesties intend to attend the Covent Garden Opera this evening and it is heard that Mr. Handel's new opera surpasses all his compositions of this kind."

- Daily Post , London, April 16, 1735

“The music to Alcina brought the few true friends that Handel still had into a joyful excitement, and fired them all the more to act on their zeal for his unsuccessful cause, as he himself refrained from all reclame and quietly and defiantly only along wanted to fight the weapons of his art. "

- Friedrich Chrysander : GF Handel , Leipzig 1860

orchestra

Piccolo flute, two recorders , two transverse flutes , two oboes , bassoon , two horns , solo violin, solo cello, strings, basso continuo (cello, lute, harpsichord).

Discography (selection)

Cappella coloniensis ; Dir. Ferdinand Leitner
London Symphony Orchestra ; Gov. Richard Bonynge
Sydney Opera Orchestra; Gov. Richard Bonynge
City of London Baroque Sinfonia; Dir. Richard Hickox (217 min)
Orchester de la Suisse Romande; Dir. William Christie (DVD 176 min)
Les Arts Florissants ; Dir. William Christie (CD, DVD 190 min)
Bavarian State Orchestra ; Dir. Ivor Bolton (CD, DVD 190 min)
Il complesso barocco ; Dir. Alan Curtis (DVD)

literature

swell

Web links

Commons : Alcina (Handel)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Editing management of the Halle Handel Edition : Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Händel-Handbuch: Volume 4 , Deutscher Verlag für Musik , Leipzig 1985, ISBN 3-7618-0717-1 , p. 244.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Anthony Hicks: Alcina. EMI CDS 7-497712, Hayes 1988, p. 4 ff.
  3. ↑ a b Baselt, Bernd: Händel-Handbuch: Volume 1. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0610-8 , p. 420.
  4. ^ Opera rara Krakow
  5. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music , article Riccardo Broschi
  6. ↑ Winton Dean : Handel's Operas, 1726-1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006, Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 , p. 315.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Jonathan Keates: Alcina. EMI CDS 7-497712, Hayes 1988, p. 10 ff.
  8. ^ Charles Burney : A general history of music:… Vol. 4 , London 1789, reprint of the Cambridge Library Collection, 2011, ISBN 978-1-108-01642-1 , pp. 369 f.
  9. ↑ David Vickers: Handel. Arianna in Creta. from the English by Eva Pottharst, MDG 609 1273-2, Detmold 2005, p. 30 ff.
  10. ^ Dorothea Schröder: Trade. Ariodante DG 457271-2, Hamburg 1997, p. 24 ff.
  11. ^ Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Stage works. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 1 , Deutscher Verlag für Musik , Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0610-8 , Unchanged reprint, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7618-0610-4 , P. 408 f.
  12. ↑ Mercure de France, dédié au Roy. Avril. 1734 , Paris 1734, p. 771 f.
  13. ↑ Mercure de France , April 1734
  14. ↑ Christopher Hogwood : Georg Friedrich Handel. A biography (= Insel-Taschenbuch 2655). from the English by Bettina Obrecht, Insel Verlag , Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-458-34355-5 , p. 218.
  15. ↑ a b c d 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 , pp. 255 f.
  16. ↑ a b c d Christopher Hogwood : Georg Friedrich Handel. A biography (= Insel-Taschenbuch 2655). from the English by Bettina Obrecht. Insel Verlag , Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-458-34355-5 , p. 222 ff.
  17. ↑ a b Edition management of the Halle Handel Edition: Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 4. Deutscher Verlag für Musik , Leipzig 1985, ISBN 3-7618-0717-1 , p. 252.
  18. ^ Charles Burney : A general history of music:… Vol. 4 , London 1789, reprint of the Cambridge Library Collection, 2011, ISBN 978-1-108-01642-1 , pp. 383 f.
  19. ^ Editing management of the Halle Handel Edition: Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 4. Deutscher Verlag für Musik , Leipzig 1985, ISBN 3-7618-0717-1 , p. 254.
  20. ^ Silke Leopold : Handel. The operas. Bärenreiter-Verlag , Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-7618-1991-3 , p. 211.
  21. ^ Charles Burney : Sketch of the life of trade. In: An account of the musical performances. London 1785, p. [* 24]
  22. ^ Charles Burney: News of Georg Friedrich Handel's living conditions. from the English by Johann Joachim Eschenburg. Berlin / Stettin 1785, p. XXXI
  23. ^ Friedrich Chrysander : GF Handel , second volume, Breitkopf & Härtel , Leipzig 1860, p. 372.