Alessandro Severo (Handel)

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Work data
Original title: Alessandro Severo
Shape: Opera seria
Original language: Italian
Music: georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto : Angelo Cori (?)
Literary source: Apostolo Zeno, Alessandro Severo (Venice 1717)
Premiere: February 25, 1738
Place of premiere: King's Theater , Haymarket, London
Playing time: 2 ¾ hours
Place and time of the action: Rome , 227
people
  • Alessandro , Emperor of Rome ( soprano )
  • Sallustia , Roman patrician, his wife (soprano)
  • Giulia , mother of the emperor ( old )
  • Albina, elegant Roman, disguised as a man, in love with Claudio ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Claudio, Roman cavalier, friend of Marziano (soprano)
  • Marziano , Sallustia's father ( bass )
Severus Alexander
(bust in the Louvre )

Alessandro Severo ( HWV A 13 ) is an opera ( Dramma per musica ) in three acts by Georg Friedrich Händel . The work, created in 1737/1738, is one of his three pasticci , composed of music and arias from his own earlier operas. Only the overture and the recitatives were new. The plot deals with the story of the Roman emperor Severus Alexander .

Emergence

For four seasons, beginning with that of 1733/34, Handel's opera productions in London were in competition with the work of another ensemble, the so-called “ Opera of the Nobility ”. This was a group of aristocrats, initially led by Frederick , Prince of Wales, who brought together a rival ensemble in deliberate opposition to Handel, although it is still not clear to what extent they harbored personal, antagonistic feelings towards Handel ; it is possible that some political motivation came into play, and it is also possible that Frederick simply wanted to annoy his father, King George II , a devoted admirer of Handel. The new ensemble ousted Handel from his usual opera house, the King's Theater on Haymarket, for his second season , but Handel moved to the newly built theater in Covent Garden in 1732 and had one of his best opera seasons there in 1734/35 with the world premieres of Ariodante and Alcina . The expenses of the opera companies turned out to be too high and after the season 1736/37 both parties suffered an economic collapse. After 1729 and 1734, this was the third time that a Handel opera company was bankrupt. That was too much for the 52-year-old composer, who collapsed under the strain and suffered a stroke in April 1737 . Rumors of his dwindling creative power spread to Germany and some believed

«[…] Que les beaux jours de Hendel sont passéz, sa tète est épuissée et son gout hors de mode. »

"[...] that Handel's great time is over, his creative power is gone and his taste is no longer up to date."

- Prince Friedrich of Prussia : Letter to Prince Wilhelm of Orange , October 8, 1737

But Handel recovered during a six-week cure in Aachen and was not about to give up. Neither financial nor health disasters came against his love for opera, his actual calling, even in the face of a changed taste in music and a disinterested audience. He returned to Heidegger's King's Theater, where he shared the season with composer Giovanni Battista Pescetti , who was likely to satisfy those who preferred the lightness of the new pre-classical style to the now somewhat old-fashioned, contrapuntal virtues of Handel.

But all plans and projects were suddenly interrupted when Queen Caroline died on November 20th. The new season at Haymarket had only just seen three performances when all theaters had to close their doors for six weeks of national mourning.

For Handel, the queen's death meant a bitter personal loss: he had known her since she was eleven, when she was still Caroline von Ansbach; and in 1711 in Hanover he had written duets for her, then Georg August's bride. In England she had given him sustained support by taking out opera subscriptions for herself and her daughters, hiring him as a music teacher and trying to mediate between her husband and son on his behalf. Handel interrupted the composition of the opera Faramondo to write the extensive famous Funeral Anthem The Ways of Zion do Mourn (HWV 264) for the funeral ceremonies . The funeral was on December 17th and a week after the funeral celebrations, on Christmas Eve , Handel had just finished Faramondo when he immediately started a new opera, Serse . The season had meanwhile continued with the first performances of Faramondo .

Handel's next production was the pasticcio Alessandro Severo at the end of February , which he put together from his own works in the second half of 1737 in dire financial straits. But now, of all times, a new problem arose: Aurelio del Pò, the raw, contentious husband of Anna Maria Strada , who had been Handel's loyal prima donna for many years , had been appeased for a year with bills of exchange and promises at her persuasion and other friends of Handel. But when he couldn't find a job that winter for his wife, he demanded the money owed and threatened Handel with prison. In this difficult situation, Handel's friends advised him to hold a benefit concert . Such concerts were common and had often taken place for certain singers (such income was part of the contract between the Opera Academy and the respective singer), but Handel himself had never used them for himself.

But first he brought out Alessandro Severo in the Haymarket Theater on February 25, 1738 , carried by the hope of success and financial relief. Handel had already integrated many pasticci into his performance in London, in addition to the Oreste (1734), which only contained his own music, there were ten operas with music in particular by popular and "modern" composers such as Hasse , Vinci or Leo . Like the resumption of one's own operas, they required less work than composing and rehearsing new works and could be used as a stopgap or start of the season, or step in if a new opera was a failure. They are very versatile: arias could be easily exchanged, and they also offered the possibility of importing different styles, because the audience wanted to hear their favorite arias again and again, just as the London music publishers again and again offered collections of arias from different operas for sale . The high level of acceptance of pasticcio operas indicates a somewhat different, relaxed understanding of opera in the 18th century, which contradicts the modern demand for artistic coherence and originality in the late 19th and 20th centuries. But the baroque opera pasticci are comparable to modern wish concerts.

The cast of the premiere of Alessandro Severo is documented in the only surviving copy of the printed libretto booklet. The castrato Caffarelli , who first appeared in Faramondo on January 3, 1738, came from Italy and trained by Nicola Porpora , was employed.

Cast of the premiere

Handel's justified hopes were severely disappointed: the number of visitors was low, the income correspondingly low. As with his opera Faramondo , which premiered at the same time, there were only six performances between February 25 and May 30. It is only strange that the vocal and instrumental benefit concert on March 28, 1738, which was organized for himself and urgently requested by his friends and singers, was so overcrowded with almost 1,300 visitors that rows of seats or benches had to be placed on the stage, and therefore Handel received ample income (£ 1000) to cover debt. This is one of the proofs that Handel's reputation had by no means suffered at that time either.

In modern times, the opera was only performed again on March 18, 1997 in the Britten Theater in London. This performance with the London Handel Orchestra under the direction of Denys Darlow was the first after Handel's own performances.

Handel's Alessandro Severo was one of his last activities in the field of Italian opera. He was then to lead only a dozen opera performances: Serse (five performances), Imeneo and another Italian pasticcio, Giove in Argo , (with two performances each) and finally on February 10, 1741 the last of the three performances of Deidamia . Then he turned completely to the English oratorio , which had gradually replaced opera in recent years.

libretto

The text he used was the libretto Alessandro Severo by Apostolo Zeno , which was premiered in the setting by Antonio Lotti on December 26, 1716 in the Teatro di San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice with Faustina Bordoni in one of her first roles (as Sallustia). Handel made even less trouble with Alessandro Severo than with the operas Faramondo and Serse , which were written at the same time, and where he has already drawn much inspiration from the music of other composers. You can understand that when you consider that Heidegger paid Handel a fixed price per opera. As a result, Handel no longer had the same concern about their success on stage as he had before. Heidegger's sole responsibility for the financial risks suggests that he was also responsible for the choice of librettos and he has always had a much greater preference for Apostolo Zeno than Handel himself.

When editing the template text, it had to be partially changed in order to adapt it to Handel's existing music. In 14 other cases, Handel's aria texts were left untouched and the coherent contextual connection was achieved by changing the words in the Zenosian recitatives. Hence, it is virtually impossible to determine which of the many versions of Zeno's text was used. Handel's text editor, who had a lot of work to do in this case, - possibly it was a new librettist: Angelo Cori - integrated a text that in a performance of Alessandro Severo , set to music by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini for the carnival season in Milan 1723: Chi sa dirti , o core amante (No. 5) is included in the score. This “aria aggiunta” was not printed in the Milan libretto booklet. From this one can conclude that Orlandini's score must represent the direct text template for Handel's arrangement.

Later settings based on the text by Apostolo Zeno are: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's first work : La Salustia (1732, Naples), Alessandro Severo by Giuseppe Bonno (1737, Vienna), Andrea Bernasconi (1738, Venice) and Antonio Sacchini (1762, Venice).

action

Historical and literary background

The main source for Zeno is the account of the contemporary historian Herodian . In June 221, Severus Alexander , who was not yet thirteen , was raised to Caesar by his cousin, Emperor Elagabal , who was only four years his senior , and was thus appointed his successor. In the following year he was able to take power without any problems after Elagabal's murder. Throughout his life he was under the dominant influence of his mother Julia Mamaea . She was the actual ruler and also arranged his marriage. Mamaea chose the patrician Sallustia Orbiana as a wife for Alexander . (Herodian does not mention the names of Severus Alexander's wife and father-in-law, however.) Orbiana came from a distinguished senatorial but politically insignificant family. The marriage entered into in 225 remained childless and did not last long because a power struggle broke out between the emperor's mother and father-in-law. Orbiana's father, Seius Sallustius, tried unsuccessfully to incite the Praetorians against Mamaea. Mamaea got her way, she forced her son's divorce. Seius Sallustius was executed, Orbiana banished to Africa. This time the Praetorians proved loyal, but after this experience Mamaea did not dare remarry her son. Apparently she saw in every marriage between the imperial family and a foreign clan a threat to her power. For fear of this risk, however, they jeopardized the continued existence of the dynasty. There was no regulation of the succession until the end of Alexander's reign. After a loss-making Persian war with an undecided outcome, the emperor had to rush to the Rhine to repel a German invasion. There his unpopularity in the army was his undoing. He and his mother fell victim to a soldier mutiny in 235.

Herodian's descriptions are literarily embellished, his interpretation is not shared by today's research. He claims that the emperor loved his wife, stood on the side of his wife and father-in-law and did not want his marriage to be dissolved, but that he did not dare to contradict his mother. The conflict was due to Mamaea's outrageous arrogance. She behaved so presumptuously towards her daughter-in-law and her father out of jealousy that the provoked father-in-law of the emperor could no longer endure it and complained to the Praetorians. She then ordered his execution. She chased her daughter-in-law from the imperial palace and banished to Africa. But Herodian can hardly be trusted to have such background knowledge; He presumably reproduces rumors that were circulating among Mamaea's opponents, to whom he was himself.

first act

Alessandro Severo became emperor at the age of 14. At the instigation of his mother Giulia Mammaea, he married Sallustia, a Roman woman from a noble family, a young woman with a comprehensive education. Contrary to Giulia's expectations, who had hoped to keep her political influence, the son breaks free from his mother with the help of his wife. Giulia is extremely jealous of the daughter-in-law. In addition, this marriage is happy too. The Empress Mother is looking for a way out and can actually surprise her son with an intrigue: Alessandro signs one of many state papers and does not notice that there is one among these documents that accuses his beloved wife of infidelity and greed for power and, as a consequence, orders his exile . When he realizes what has happened, he confronts Sallustia, who, however, rejects every charge. For reasons of state, not out of conviction, he still sends Sallustia into exile.

Second act

Sallustia has been living in exile for several years and is harassed again and again by the guards devoted to Giulia. However, she does not complain and keeps thinking about changing her situation. One day she decides to ask her father Marziano for help. He wants to instigate a conspiracy against the emperor, which Sallustia refuses, as she sees her situation worsening as a result. She asks the father to drop his plans. The emperor's minister Claudio is also involved in the conspiracy, but his attempt goes wrong due to the intervention of Albina, his lover. But Albina manages to let the conspirators go unpunished. As a result, Minister Claudio turns back to his Albina.

Third act

Unimpressed by Claudio's failure, Marziano plans another rebellion, this time not against the emperor, but against the empress mother. Giulia, according to the rebels, has an extremely bad influence on Alessandro and therefore deserves death. As a first measure, the conspirators succeed in liberating Sallustia and with it they penetrate Giulia's apartments in the palace. She can already see her death before her eyes, but Sallustia is able to prevent the murder by standing in front of her mother-in-law. Desperate about her marriage to Alessandro, Sallustia pleads with the father and the conspirators for mercy for Giulia - and the rebels actually hurry away. Overwhelmed by this generosity, Sallustia and Giulia reconcile, who also admits to her son that she had started an intrigue.

The end of the opera is a typically baroque lieto fine , a repentance and reconciliation tableau: the emperor is not only completely surprised at the turnaround, but also more than pleased to have his Sallustia again. He forgives everyone and pardons Marziano and Claudio, which clears the way to Claudio and Albina's wedding.

music

The main source for Handel's Alessandro Severo is his director's score , now in the British Library (Add. MS 31569). Furthermore, a single copy of the printed libretto survived in the “Schœlcher Collection” of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris . Handel preferred to fall back on music from the time of the second opera academy , that is to say, relatively contemporary music, especially the three new operas from the previous season, Arminio , Giustino and Berenice . He took seven arias from the opera Giustino alone . The other chants are from Radamisto (1720), Riccardo Primo (1727), Siroe (1728), Ezio (1732), Orlando (1733), Arianna in Creta (1734) and Atalanta (1736).

Many of the arias were rewritten to bring them into line with the new dramatic context of Zeno's libretto, or they were chosen so that the text and music fit into the plot. Only cuts or transpositions due to the composition of the ensemble can be proven - the structure of the music remained essentially unchanged. The overture, which was included in the Seventh Collection of Overture collections by John Walsh , and the recitatives have been newly composed. In an Accompagnato Giulia, Un incognito affanno (No. 25), Handel expresses her fear of impending disaster with a tremolo on the strings. He indicates this with a wavy line above the notes and that is the only time that he uses this notation in a recitative.

John Walsh also edited a small collection of arias from Alessandro Severo . But from The Favorite Song: in the Opera call'd Alexander Severo, in Score, published in The Daily Post, and General Advertiser of March 8-11 , 1738 . By Mr. Handel or The Favorite Songs in the Opera call'd Alexander Severo. Taken from the Operas of Justin, Arminio, Atalanta, & c. no more specimen is detectable.

Structure of the opera

first act

  • Overture / Menuet
  • Coro: Viva Augusto
  • Aria Marziano: Lascio Gian e sieguo Marte
  • Duetto Sallustia / Alessandro: Non ho più affanni
  • Aria Giulia: Lo sdegno del mio cor
  • Aria Albina: Chi sa dirti, o core amante
  • Aria Albina: Zeffiretto che scorre nel prato
  • Aria Alessandro: Che posso dir, o cara
  • Aria Sallustia: Un sol tuo sguardo
  • Aria Claudio: Lascia ch'io parta lieto
  • Aria Albina: Niente spero, tutto credo
  • Aria Giulia: Sì farò ch'il figlio avrà
  • Aria Sallustia: Ch'io mai vi possa

Second act

  • Sinfonia
  • Aria Sallustia: S'è tuo piacer ch'io vada
  • Aria Alessandro: Se si vanta il cieco Dio
  • Aria Claudio: Vedi l'ape ch'ingegnosa
  • Aria Albina: pure Vanne, infido
  • Aria Giulia: Se l'arcano scoprire
  • Aria Marziano: Nasce al bosco in rozza cuna
  • Aria Alessandro: Salda quercia in erta balza

Third act

  • Sinfonia
  • Aria Alessandro: Sull'altar di questo nume
  • Aria Albina: Sventurata navicella
  • Aria Claudio: Quell'oggetto schernito
  • Accompagnato Giulia: Un incognito affano
  • Aria Marziano: Impara, ingrata ad esser men crudele
  • Duetto Sallustia / Giulia: Dirò che amore come il cor
  • Aria Sallustia: O care parolette, o dolci sguardi
  • Sinfonia
  • Aria Alessandro: Con I'ali di costanza
  • Coro / Sallustia solo: Dolcissimo amore ogn'alma

orchestra

Two transverse flutes , two oboes , bassoon , two horns , strings, basso continuo ( violoncello , lute , two harpsichords ).

Discography

  • Dabringhaus & Grimm MDG 6091674-2 (2011): Mary Ellen Nesi (Alessandro), Marita Solberg (Sallustia), Kristina Hammarström (Giulia), Irini Karaianni (Albina), Gemma Bertagnolli (Claudio), Petrols Magoulas (Marziano)
Armonia Atenea; Dir. George Petrou (158 min)

literature

  • Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Instrumental music, pasticci and fragments. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 3 , Deutscher Verlag für Musik , Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-7618-0716-3 , p. 413 f.
  • Anthony Hicks: Handel With Care. In: The Musical Times 134 (1809), London, November 1993, pp. 639-642.
  • Albert Scheibler: All 53 stage works by Georg Friedrich Handel, opera guide. Edition Cologne, Lohmar / Rheinland 1995, ISBN 3-928010-05-0 , p. 767 f.
  • 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 .
  • Winton Dean : Handel's Operas, 1726-1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006. Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 , (English).
  • John H. Roberts: Alessandro Severo. In: Annette Landgraf and David Vickers: The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia , Cambridge University Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-88192-0 , pp. 21 f. (English).
  • Steffen Voss : Alessandro Severo. In: Hans Joachim Marx (Hrsg.): The Handel Handbook in 6 volumes: The Handel Lexicon. (Volume 6), Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2011, ISBN 978-3-89007-552-5 , p. 50 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Reinhard Strohm : Handel's pasticci. In: Essays on Handel and Italian Opera , Cambridge University Press 1985, Reprint 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-26428-0 , pp. 75 f. (English).
  2. ^ Anthony Hicks: Handel With Care (Nov. 1993), The Musical Times , 134 (1809): 639-642.
  3. ↑ a b c Anthony Hicks : Serse. Handel , RCA 75605513122, London 1998, p. 27 ff.
  4. ^ 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. 284
  5. ↑ a b c 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. 250 ff.
  6. ^ Friedrich Chrysander : GF Handel , second volume, Breitkopf & Härtel , Leipzig 1860, p. 448 f.
  7. ^ Albert Scheibler: Complete 53 stage works by Georg Friedrich Handel, opera guide. Edition Cologne, Lohmar / Rheinland 1995, ISBN 3-928010-05-0 , p. 767 f.
  8. ↑ a b c Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Instrumental music, pasticci and fragments. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 3 , Deutscher Verlag für Musik , Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-7618-0716-3 , p. 413 f.
  9. ↑ Herodian : Roman History ( Ἱστωρία Ῥωμαῖα ), Book 6, Chapter 1 (9-10).
  10. ^ Herodian Book 6 . tertullian.org. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  11. ↑ Matthäus Heil : Severus Alexander and Orbiana. An imperial marriage . In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 135, Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn 2001, pp. 233–248.
  12. ^ A b John H. Roberts: Alessandro Severo. In: Annette Landgraf and David Vickers: The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia , Cambridge University Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-88192-0 , pp. 21 f. (English).
  13. ↑ a b Steffen Voss: Alessandro Severo. In: Hans Joachim Marx (Hrsg.): The Handel Handbook in 6 volumes: The Handel Lexicon , (Volume 6), Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2011, ISBN 978-3-89007-552-5 , p. 50 f .