Alessandro (opera)

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Work data
Original title: Alessandro
Title page of the libretto, London 1726

Title page of the libretto, London 1726

Shape: Opera seria
Original language: Italian
Music: georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto : Paolo Antonio Rolli
Literary source: Ortensio Mauro , La superbia d'Alessandro (1690)
Premiere: May 5, 1726
Place of premiere: King's Theater , Haymarket, London
Playing time: 3 hours
Place and time of the action: Ossidraca in India , 328-326 BC Chr.
people

Alessandro ( HWV 21) is an opera ( Dramma per musica ) in three acts by Georg Friedrich Handel . The first performance of the piece was the first meeting in London of the two most famous singers of the time: Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni .

Emergence

In the autumn of 1725 the reports in the London newspapers about the imminent arrival of a new Italian soprano turned out to be:

“We hear that the Royal Academy [of] Musick, in the Hay Market, have contracted with famous Chauntess for 2500 l. who is coming over from Italy against the winter. "

"As can be heard, the Royal Academy of Music at Haymarket has signed a contract with a famous lady for £ 2,500 who will be coming from Italy this winter."

- The Daily Journal. London, August 31, 1725.

"Signiora Faustina, a famous Italian Lady, is coming over this winter to rival Signiora Cuzzoni."

"Signora Faustina, a famous Italian lady, will come this winter to compete with Signora Cuzzoni."

- The London Journal. London, September 4, 1725.

The academy did indeed manage to hire the famous Faustina Bordoni . In the autumn of 1725, Handel immediately set to work to write an opera, Alessandro , for the new constellation at his home, with two prima donnas (Bordoni, Cuzzoni ) and one primo uomo ( Senesino ). But the diva took an insolent amount of time and did not come for the time being: Be it that she haggled for her fee for so long (she ultimately received “only” £ 2000) or other reasons. After Winton Dean , she had an engagement in the Vienna carnival season in winter .

In any case, Handel had to act, because the schedule for the new season still wanted to be filled. On November 30, 1725 he began the seventh opera season of the Royal Academy of Music, initially with a resumption of the pasticcios L'Elpidia, ovvero Li rivali generosi . Most of the music for the arias was by Leonardo Vinci . Resumptions of his own operas Rodelinda and Ottone followed . But he also urgently needed his own new opera. Since his regular collaborator and lyricist Nicola Francesco Haym was not available, he turned to Paolo Antonio Rolli , who had already written two libretti for him in 1721 ( Il Muzio Scevola and Il Floridante ). The need must have been great, because Rolli and Handel were actually fighting. But now Handel absolutely needed a libretto to cover the time until the Bordoni arrived. So he left work on Alessandro and set to music within three weeks Rolli’s new libretto Publio Cornelio Scipione in February 1726 . Around the time the Scipione was first performed , “La Nuova Sirena” arrived in London, and Handel took on Alessandro again .

This score shows a very careful elaboration, especially with regard to the equivalence of the two main female roles Rossane and Lisaura. Both roles received the same number of arias, both sang a duet with Alessandro, in whom they were both in love, and even had a duet together: Placa l'alma (No. 18), in which each singer had exactly the same share . Both vocally and in terms of temperament and appearance, Faustina was an absolute contrast to Cuzzoni. The English music historian Charles Burney , who as a young man played violinist and violist in Handel's orchestra, reported:

“She in an manner invented a new kind of singing, by running divisions with a neatness and velocity which astonished all who heard her. She had the art of sustaining a note longer, in the opinion of the public, than any other singer, by taking her breath imperceptibly. "

“In a way, she invented a new form of singing, running runs with a precision and speed that amazed anyone who heard her. She mastered the art of holding the tone longer than any other singer, for the ears of the audience, by breathing imperceptibly. "

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

In addition to her physical attractiveness, she was also an excellent actress, intelligent, good-natured and unmarried. (It was not until the age of 33, in 1730, that she married the German composer Johann Adolph Hasse and settled with him in Dresden for almost thirty years .)

The first disaster for the opera company came when the academy had to levy an emergency contribution of 5% from the members again on March 18, 1726: The financial situation became more and more precarious and all hopes were now placed on the new triumvirate of singers. While the performances of the Scipione were running, Handel continued to work on the Alessandro score and dated the autograph at the end: “Fine dell Opera | 11 d'aprile 1726. "

The first performance took place on May 5th at the King's Theater on Haymarket. The opera was so successful that the usual number of two performances a week was not enough and it had to be played three times. In total, it was given on at least thirteen evenings within a month. Owen Swiney reports that there may have been four or five more shows this season. And from Lady Sarah Cowper we know that there were hardly any tickets for the performances, the rush was so great. Many years later Horace Walpole reported on a performance by Alessandro in the Senesino

"[...] so far forgot himself in the heat of the conquest, as to stick his sword into one of the pasteboard stones of the wall of the town, and bore it in triumph before him [...]"

"[...] in the heat of the battle [the siege of Ossidraca] forgot himself so much that he thrust his sword into a paper mache stone of the city wall and carried it triumphantly in front of him [...]"

- Horace Walpole : The World. London, February 8, 1753.

But perhaps the London audience was also somewhat disappointed by the two sopranos' first joint appearance: What they had seen was not a duel between the two divas, but a highly professional performance by the two actresses, each with their own style and vocal advantages had shone. Despite the alleged tensions between the two in the press, they had once again been on stage together with great success, without a sign of rivalry, as in the years 1718/19 in Venice . It remains in the dark what part the management of the academy had in the burgeoning rivalry, or whether they at least took benevolent note of the "rustling in the forest of leaves", because after all, this not insignificantly promoted ticket sales. In any case, there is no evidence of a starting point where the two women were hostile to each other.

libretto

The libretto comes from Paolo Antonio Rolli and is an arrangement of Ortensio Mauro's La superbia d'Alessandro ("The haughty Alexander"), which he wrote in 1690 for the Hanoverian court and which was set to music by Agostino Steffani . It is also based on the editing of this model by the same authors, Il zelo di Leonato , which was part of the program in Hanover in 1691 . Handel's good contacts with the royal court in London gave him access to Steffani's autograph , which was a combination of both versions.

Of the two librettists who worked for the academy during Handel's time at the academy, Haym was actually by far the more capable, but this time, as with Scipione , Handel had to make do with Rolli. As you can see in his later libretto for Handel's Deidamia and Il Paradiso perduto , his translation of Milton's Paradise Lost , he was also a thoroughly capable poet, but he regarded such assignments as cheap wage writing, as he cynically in one of his satirical epigrams noticed, and didn't bother too much. In the case of Alessandro , he even had a good model with the libretto Mauros. Although he largely received the storylines, important details are lost in his editing for Handel. Unfortunately, it often remains unclear why people are acting in a certain direction. With Mauro, Alessandro is just as vain, irritable and emotionally cold, but his actions are at least consistent. For example, Alessandro's attempts to get closer to Lisaura are purely politically motivated: after all, he needs the friendship of the Skyther . In Mauro's libretto, Clito is also in love with Rossane, Rolli transfers this to Cleone, a Sicilian favorite of Alesaandro, and Leonato is punished when he refuses to recognize Alessandro as the son of Jupiter , which now happens to Clito with Rolli. The further course of action with Mauro is as follows: When the leader of the conspirators, Ermelao, a bodyguard of the Macedonian general, meets him in a bad mood and asks him for the most beautiful female slave, he is flogged. Offended, he gathers Clito and other secret enemies of Alessandro to prepare an assassination attempt on him: They want to bring down a staircase above the tyrant that was damaged in the war. The agreed sign for this is unwittingly given by Alessandro himself when he tries to throw his spear at Clito. But he can get to safety in time from the hail of stones. His arrogance also drives Leonato into the arms of the conspirators. Finally, in the third act, Tassile sets a trap for the conspirators by pretending to be on their side. He lures them onto a bridge, which he lets destroy when they are on it. Except for Leonato, everyone is drowning in the Ganges . As the editor for Handel's opera stage, Rolli now had three tasks to adapt the template to current requirements. First he had to delete one character, as there were only seven singers available. Furthermore, the roles of the two princesses Rossane and Lisaura had to be expanded in order to satisfy the two prima donnas. This finally made itself painfully noticeable in the other roles, masterfully designed by Mauro, as almost every resulting shortening of the other parts worsened the libretto. Rolli should rather have deleted Cleone, which has now been reduced to nothing, instead of doing without Ermelao, the leader of the conspirators, because this does not reveal important parts of the story. For the first time ever there was talk of a conspiracy when the stairs collapsed. Alessandro immediately deduces that Clito is responsible. And the turmoil that only develops in the third act is stifled by this with just one word.

If Rolli tried to make up for the rigorous cuts in the secondary characters by cleverly designing the roles of the two prima donnas, it was a complete failure: their appearances and resignations seem unmotivated and have no dramaturgical justification. The two most impressive scenes of the opera, however, are almost unchanged adaptations from Mauro's textbook: Alessandro's daring idea of ​​Ossidraca, which paves the way for his soldiers, and the garden scene in which Alessandro makes proposals to two princesses one after the other, each of which ironically answers him with the words, the he had previously addressed to the other. Otherwise, Rolli only took over short sections in the recitatives, three aria texts and the choir Fra le guerre (No. 8), in which Alessandro sings his own praise song, from Mauro . Rolli's only good touch was the insertion of Alessandro's two duets, each with a princess, before the final chorus, first with Lisaura In generoso onor , then with Rossane Cara, la tua beltà (No. 42). But even this is not to his credit: he designed the text as a recitative, only Handel made arias out of it.

Cast of the premiere:

The opera was a great success and was resumed by Handel in the following season on December 26, 1727 for a series of at least four performances. Perhaps there were five more, but the only newspaper that advertised opera performances during that time, the Daily Courant , did not appear for several weeks during that time. Once again there were six performances in the so-called “second opera academy” from November 25, 1732. For this, Handel made numerous other cuts: u. a. The parts of Leonato and Cleone, but also about 250 other lines of recitative, have now been deleted.

As early as November 1726, the opera was performed twice under the title Der haughty Alexander at the Hamburg Opera on Gänsemarkt . As usual, the arias were sung in Italian and the recitatives in German. Apparently, when setting up the score , Christoph Gottlieb Wend used the recitatives from Steffani's 1690 Hanoverian opera, which Gottlieb Fiedler had translated into German in 1695. He added ballets and an aria from Scipione , but deleted three arias from the Alessandro score, perhaps because they did not seem to suit Steffani's recitatives. Georg Philipp Telemann was the musical director of these performances . Probably under the direction of Carl Heinrich Graun , a version as Der Haughty Alexander was performed in Braunschweig on August 17, 1728 . Georg Caspar Schürmann had taken care of the furnishings and eliminated the rivalry between the two leading actresses from the opera. Some arias were omitted, but Schürmann took three from Mauro's original libretto, which Handel had not set to music, with his own movements and other arias of Handel. The number of performances is not recorded. The amateur lutenist Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach reports in his travel diary that he has attended two performances.

In London, too, the work was staged twice , this time under the title Rossane : from November 15, 1743, there were sixteen performances and from February 24, 1747 three apparently related productions with a total of twelve performances up to 1748. Handel had a relationship since retired from the opera business and was no longer personally involved. Since he had promised Lord Middlesex , at the time manager of the King's Theater, to write two new operas, but apparently found himself unable to do so, he loaned his Alessandro sheet music for these series of performances. Giovanni Battista Lampugnani set up the score, leaving only ten of the originally 27 arias from the original score in this version, adding arias from other Handel operas and a version of Return, o God of Host’s from Samson . Handel's lifelong admirer and Brook Street neighbor, Mary Delany , attended one of these performances on November 18, 1743 and wrote to her sister:

“I was at the opera of Alexander […] was infinitely better than any Italian opera; but it vexed me to hear some favorite songs mangled [...] ”

"I was in the opera Alexander [...] it was infinitely better than any Italian opera, but it annoyed me to hear some [of my] favorite arias so mutilated [...]"

- Mary Delany : Letter to Ann Grewes. London 1743.

Alessandro was performed more than fifty times during Handel's lifetime, more often than some of his recognized masterpieces, but has rarely been heard since then. The first modern stage performance was on March 28, 1959 in the Dresden State Opera in a German text version by Jürgen Beythien and Eberhard Sprink and under the musical direction of Rudolf Neuhaus. The first performance of the piece in historical performance practice was a concert performance on February 5, 1984 in the Alte Oper in Frankfurt am Main with La Petite Bande under the direction of Sigiswald Kuijken .

action

Historical and literary background

Alexander the Great and Roxane Pietro Antonio Rotari , 1756. Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

The background to the plot is the Alexander campaign , which lasted ten years between 334 and 324 BC. Lasted and Alexander the Great and his army also led via Central Asia to India, which was to be the basis of a later opera by Handel: Poro (1731). This has been described in no less than three writings that were written at the turn of the first to the second century AD: in the 4th book of the Anabasis of Lucius Flavius ​​Arrianus , in Quintus Curtius Rufus ' eighth book of the Historiae Alexandri Magni and in Plutarch's Bíoi parálleloi (parallel descriptions of life ). The latter was the main source for the libretto, from which Mauro also took the story of the conflict between Alexander and Kleitos the Black : Alexander had his loyal friend and lifesaver in 328 BC. At a feast in Marakanda in a dispute, angry and killed with a spear. According to Curtius Rufus, Mauro chose "Oppidum sudracarum" (IX. Book, Chapter 4), the city of the Oxydrakers (Sidrach), a place in eastern Punjab that can no longer be localized , for example in the mouth of the Hydaspes (today Jhelum in the Akesines (now Chanab ).

first act

In front of the city wall of Sidrach. After the siege of the city, Alessandro calls for an assault on it. He himself will fight in the front row. With Clito's help, Sidrach falls and Alessandro is drunk with victory: Frà le stragi e frà le morte (No. 3).

In the camp. Rossane and Lisaura step out of their tent and look anxiously at the city wall, as they fear for Alessandro's life. They find that they are rivals for his favor. Both worries turn into hopeful joy when Tassile brings them the news that the battle has been won. His own joy of victory is clouded by the realization that Lisaura, whom he loves, is only interested in Alessandro. However, he cannot hate his rival because he owes his throne to him: Vibra, cortese Amor (No. 7).

In the breach. Alessandro celebrates the won battle with his comrades on the broken line of defense: Fra le guerre e le vittorie (No. 8). He happily greets Rossane and Lisaura, but one believes that they are disadvantaged in front of the other. While Alessandro chases after the offended Rossane, Lisaura feels so humiliated that she now resolves to renounce this man: No, più soffrir non voglio (No. 9).

Rossane's room. Discouraged, Rossane withdraws to her room. But Alessandro followed her and confessed his love to her. He protests that he wants to renounce Lisaura. But Rossane distrusts this hasty promise: Un lusinghiero dolce pensiero (No. 12).

Temple of Zeus. Alessandro is worshiped as the son of gods amidst the statues of Zeus, Hercules and his own. While Cleone and Tassile are busy doing this, Clito, who is one of the ruler's most loyal generals, displeases this glorification. He refuses Alessandro the respect that only Zeus himself would be entitled to. Alessandro's anger is so violent that he throws the old prince to the ground. The frightened women try together to calm the king down with flattery: Placa l'alma, quieta il petto! (Duetto No. 18). That makes him think differently. In order to be able to enjoy the love of both women, he announces a truce in order to later embark on new acts of glory: Da un breve riposo, di stato amoroso (No. 19).

Second act

A lonely place surrounded by hills. Rossane longs for Alessandro and falls asleep. Alessandro discovers her, gets intoxicated by the sleeping beauty and wants to approach her tenderly. However, this is observed by Lisaura, who is very jealous of it. When Alessandro discovers her and Rossane wakes up again, he now gives each other compliments, which does not make his situation any easier. In anger, the princesses finally leave him. Alessandro complains in a bad mood that the ruler of the world lacks the power to dispose of these two women: Vano amore, lusinga, diletto (No. 21). Lisaura believes her fear of not being able to leave Alessandro after all has been confirmed. Tassile's sincere love for her is also unable to comfort her: Che tirannia d'Amor (no. 24).

Room. Disappointed by Alessandro's infidelity, Rossane is determined to regain her freedom. When she indicates to him that the bird that has escaped the golden cage will voluntarily return to its master ( Alla sua gabbia d'oro , no. 25), he grants her this wish. Now comes Lisaura, who now sees her chance coming. But she is disappointed to find that Alessandro will soon go back to battle.

Throne room. Alessandro honors his meritorious generals with the distribution of the conquered lands. Clito feels challenged again when Alessandro calls on him to pay homage to him as the son of a god and again refuses any godlike devotion to his general and king. Alessandro again goes angry at Clito. These are separated from Tassile when the canopy above the throne is collapsed by conspirators. Alessandro explains his rescue by saying that his father Zeus protected him. He has Clito captured. Leonato brings the news of the renewed resistance of the Oxydrakers. Rossane fears for Alessandro's life and clearly expresses her love for him. Delighted by this realization, Alessandro goes into battle: Il cor mio, ch'è già per te (No. 29). Rossane will be waiting for him: Dica il falso, dica il vero (No. 30).

Third act

Dungeon. The trapped clito ponders love for truth and loyalty. Cleone guards him with provocative irony. When Leonato appears with armed men, he manages to free Clito. In his place, he puts Cleone in chains, who is released by his returning soldiers. He's boiling with rage: Sarò qual vento (No. 32).

Garden. Despite her regained freedom, Rossane does not find the strength to leave Alessandro. Together with Lisaura, however, she decides to leave the decision to Alessandro himself. But he has already decided and consoles Lisaura with the assurance that Tassile loves her. Lisaura says goodbye to her love for Alessandro: L'amor, che per te sento (No. 35). For his part, Tassile is happy to no longer have to see Alessandro as a competitor. The rushing Rossane reports that the conspirators, led by Clito and Leonato, have stirred up the Macedonians. Alessandro and Rossane say goodbye to each other: Pupille amate (No. 36) and Tempesta e calma (No. 37). But soon Tassile appears, who reports the uprising as suppressed. Clito and Leonato lay down their guns. Recognizing the need for unified action in further wars, Alessandro forgives them: Prove sono di grandezza (No. 39).

Temple of Zeus. Alessandro seals the covenant of love with Rossane; He promises Lisaura friendship. The alliance between Tassiles and Lisaura is also concluded. The lovers sing about the happy ending: In generoso onor (No. 42).

music

Beginning of the overture. Print by John Walsh , London 1760

The most striking feature of the score is the masterful design of the parts of the three main characters. This is hardly surprising when one looks at the genesis of the opera. This time Handel had put his focus on the singers and, with the exception of the first and last scenes and the splendid first half of the second act, did not focus on the character drawings or the dramatic conflict as usual, which is then less gripping than his common. Senesino got eight arias. Handel wrote seven each for Faustina and Cuzzoni and each could still sing in two duets. The other four people had to share the remaining five arias and a short arioso. This distribution brings the opera musically and dramatically off balance. A large part of the arias are spectacular bravura pieces in which the singers compete virtuously with the violins performed in unison . What is extremely unusual for Handel is that, apart from a few slow ariosi at the beginning of the last two acts and the aria L'armi implora, which was added later, the entire opera contains only one aria, which is slower than Andante : Lisaura's Che tirannia d'Amor (No. 24), however, is also masterfully done and surpasses most of Handel's Siciliani in the delicacy of their harmony and texture.

The need to provide two demanding prima donnas with rolls of comparable length, quality and degree of difficulty was a particular challenge for Handel, which he obviously devoted himself to. He was familiar with the skills of the Cuzzoni. Two passages also illustrate his attention to Faustina. Her voice was famous for its massive "A," so he gave her two arias and a duet in which that note is the tonic and another one in which it is the dominant . Faustina had sung in operas by Leonardo Vinci and Giuseppe Maria Orlandini in Venice . Handel knew this, as the year before he had taken over some of these Venetian arias in his pasticcio L'Elpidia . Brilla nell'alma (No. 34a) is one of the earliest arias in which he showed that he had fully mastered this new style of composition with its drum basses, homophonic, chordal accompaniment and the lack of counterpoint , as represented especially by Vinci. At the beginning, Handel introduces the two princesses in the unusual form of a duet in the Accompagnato recitative , noting Rossane's part in the upper staff, despite the fact that their tessitur is usually a note lower. There are two more such recitatives in the final scene, with the prima donnas alternating with the upper part. If one of them had just sung a brilliant aria, the other came shortly afterwards, which was undoubtedly already prepared in the textbook. Faustina had particularly strong moments in the Accompagnato recitatives: Vilipese bellezze (No. 10) and Solitudini amate (No. 20) are among the highlights of the opera. Each princess had to sing a duet with Alessandro at the end, although only one could marry him: Here Handel achieved a great success by combining the two duets, a trio with Alessandro and the final chorus in a single finale. These parts are linked by their themes and varied by an ever-increasing instrumental line-up: First unison violins accompany Lisaura's duet, then with Rossane various combinations of thirds for recorders and violins are added. The oboes join the trio and the full orchestral sound with horns and trumpets is played in the final chorus.

On the whole, the magnificent arias in Alessandro are impressive. From a formal point of view, the experimental way in which Handel uses Accompagnati and Ariosi, thereby expanding the narrow framework of the opera seria for himself, is particularly interesting . The first scene already combines secco and accompaniment recitatives and two symphonies made of the same thematic material, the second being an extension of the first. The last scene of the first act has a comparable approach: Here Handel takes up the form of the French overture (common at the beginning of all his operas): between the majestic introduction and the Allegro fugue , however, he uses a seccore quotation and ends the fugue abruptly to let it pass into an Accompagnato. The following secco recitative contains unison escapades of the entire string apparatus, but without assuming the form of an accompaniment. This unusual sequence is concluded by a duet of the two princesses, which only consists of an A part.

Garden and sleeping scenes always inspired Handel the most in terms of ingenuity and creativity, as we know from Agrippina , Publio Cornelio Scipione , Tolomeo , Serse and other operas. The second act by Alessandro begins with one of the most beautiful such scenes: a magnificent ten-part introduction for two recorders, two oboes, bassoons, three violins, viola and bass leads to an accompaniment recitative with a thematically related, calm arioso. Then Rossane falls asleep on the dominant and the strings lead the music back to the tonic with soft tones. The following comic scene is a masterpiece of concentrated irony and culminates in one of the most beautiful arias in the opera, Vano amore (No. 21), a tremendously impressive piece with varied instrumentation. The briefly torn off and almost haughty theme of oboes and violins in “Andante, e staccato” stands for the pride of the offended ruler, while the furious roar of the deep violins and violas stands for his rebellion against the shame of rejection. A Presto follows in the B section. Here the beat , tempo and key change: it starts quite surprisingly in C minor, where after G minor one should actually expect B major. Placing this first da capo aria of the second act behind an instrumental introduction, an accompaniment recitative and no less than five ariosi (including the repetitions) doubles its effect. Immediately afterwards there is another dramatic key change from G minor of the aria to A minor of the fine, only four-bar ariosos of Lisaura ( Tiranna passion , no. 22), which unexpectedly ends on a broken recitative cadenza.

There are many such subtle details. In the 5th scene of the second act, Alessandro decides to renounce his love for both women because they made a fool of him. When Lisaura tries to lure him back on a half-close in A major, Alessandro shouts "No!" On an F, which shifts the aria to the key of F major. This “No!” Is an ingredient of Handel and not included in the libretto. The prelude to Rossane's aria Tempesta e calma (No. 37) begins practically in the middle of an ordinary prelude, and only after a few bars does the ear recognize the tonic in G minor. In the F minor aria Che tirannia d'Amor (No. 24) the orchestral prelude ends in C major, i.e. on the dominant, and the use of the voice on the tonic comes as a surprise. Handel's operas are full of such surprising ideas.

When it was resumed in 1727, the five main roles were sung by the cast of the premiere. The roles of Leonato and Cleone were canceled, which was also the case in 1732, when Senesino was the only one left from the original line-up. Here Anna Maria Strada del Pó sang Rossane, Celeste Gismondi sang Lisaura, alto Francesca Bertolli , who specializes in trouser roles, sang Tassile and Antonio Montagnana sang Clito. Tassile's part, which now also included the aria Si dolce lusingar (No. 34b), was transposed just as higher for Bertolli as at least one of Faustina's arias was for Strada. As was customary at the time, Handel drastically shortened the recitatives and divided what was left of Leonato's and Cleone's roles among the other actors.

Success & Criticism

“On a dénié à Hændel le don du comique. C'est le connaître mal. Il était plein d'humour, et l'a souvent exprimé dans ses œuvres. Dans son premier opéra, Almira , le rôle de Tabarco est dans le style comique de Keizer et de Telemann. […] Le Polyphème d ' Acis et Galatée a une ampleur superbe de bouffonnerie sauvage. Mais dès Agrippina , Hændel a pris à l'Italie sa fine ironie; et le style léger […] de Vinci et de Pergolesi avant la lettre, apparaît chez lui dès Teseo (1713). Radamisto, Rodelinda, Alessandro, Tolomeo, Partenope, Orlando, Atalanta en offrent de nombreux examples. La scène d'Alexandre et de Roxane endormie, ou qui fait semblant de l'être, est une petite scène de comédie musicale. »

“Handel's talent for the comic was denied; that means knowing him badly. He was full of humor and expressed it often enough in his work. In Almira , his first opera, the role of Tabarco is played in the comic style of Keizer and Telemann [...] The Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea is a wonderfully rounded figure of wild amusement. From Agrippina on, however, Handel took fine irony in Italy. The light style […] of Vinci and Pergolesi with the small, short movements and the chopped rhythms has appeared with him since Teseo (1713), and later Radamisto , Rodelinda , Alessandro, Tolomeo , Partenope , Orlando and Atalanta have numerous examples of this. The scene between Alexander and Roxane, who fell asleep or pretended to be asleep, is a small scene that belongs to the musical comedy. "

- Romain Rolland : Hændel . Paris 1910.

orchestra

Two recorders , two oboes , bassoon , two trumpets , two horns , strings, basso continuo (violoncello, lute, harpsichord).

Discography

La Petite Gang ; Dir. Sigiswald Kuijken (172 min)
  • Studios classique 100 303 (1989): Anita Terzian (Alessandro), Lola Watson (Rossane), Phoebe Atkinson (Lisaura), Perry Price (Tassile), Norman Anderson (Clito), Betty Jean Rieders (Cleone), Thomas Poole (Leonato)
Sinfonia Varsovia ; Dir. Mieczyslaw Nowakoski (213 min)
  • Pan Classics PC 10273 (2012): Lawrence Zazzo (Alessandro), Yetzabel Arias Fernández (Rossane), Raffaella Milanesi (Lisaura), Martín Oro (Tassile), Andrew Finde (Clito), Rebecca Raffell (Cleone), Sebastian Kohlhepp (Leonato)
German Handel soloists; Dir. Michael Form (190 min)
Armonia Atenea; Dir. George Petrou (190 min)

literature

Web links

Commons : Alessandro (Handel)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Άρριανός  - sources and full texts
  • Anabasis (selection) in the English translation by E. J Chinnock (1893) and E. Iliff Robson (1933)
  • Anabasis in French translation, partly with original Greek text
Wikisource: Quintus Curtius Rufus  - Sources and full texts (Latin)

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Head of the Halle Handel Edition: Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (Hrsg.): Handel manual: Volume 4. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1985, ISBN 978-3-7618-0717-0 , p. 135.
  2. ^ A b c d e f Winton Dean: Handel's Operas, 1726–1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006, Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 , p. 24 ff.
  3. a b c d Christopher Hogwood: Georg Friedrich Handel. A biography (= Insel-Taschenbuch 2655). Translated from the English by Bettina Obrecht. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-458-34355-5 , p. 152 ff.
  4. ^ Charles Burney: A General History of Music: from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period. Vol. 4. London 1789, faithful reprint: Cambridge University Press 2010, ISBN 978-1-1080-1642-1 , p. 308.
  5. handelhendrix.org
  6. a b c d e f g Winton Dean: Haendel. Alessandro. DHM GD 77110, Freiburg 1985, pp. 25-30.
  7. Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach : Diary of a walk through the Hessian in the Braunschweig-Lüneburgische Lande. Max Arnim (Ed.), Göttingen 1928, p. 36 ff.
  8. ^ 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 978-3-7618-0717-0 , p. 367.
  9. Alexander the Great - Sources: Anabasis Book 4b . websfor.org. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  10. ^ Arrien: Expéditions d'Alexandre: livre IV (traduction) . remacle.org. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  11. ^ Curtius Rufus: Historiae Alexandri Magni VIII . thelatinlibrary.com. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  12. ^ Q. Curti Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis - Liber Octavus . penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  13. ^ Lives (Dryden translation) / Alexander
  14. ^ Silke Leopold: Handel. The operas. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-7618-1991-3 , p. 213 ff.
  15. ^ Romain Rolland : Hændel. Félix Alcan, Paris, 1910, p. 158.
  16. ^ Romain Rolland: Handel. Translated from the French by Lisbeth Langnese-Hug. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1954, p. 152 f.