Rodelinda (Handel)

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Work data
Original title: Rodelinda, regina de 'Longobardi
Title page of the libretto, Hamburg 1734

Title page of the libretto, Hamburg 1734

Shape: Opera seria
Original language: Italian
Music: georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto : Nicola Francesco Haym
Literary source: Pierre Corneille , Pertharite, roi des Lombards (1652)
Premiere: February 13, 1725
Place of premiere: King's Theater , Haymarket, London
Playing time: 3 hours
Place and time of the action: Milan , around 665
people
  • Rodelinda , Queen of the Lombards and wife of Bertaridos ( soprano )
  • Bertarido , King of the Longobards expelled by Grimoaldo ( old )
  • Grimoaldo , Duke of Benevento , fiancé Eduiges ( tenor )
  • Eduige, Bertarido's sister (old)
  • Unulfo, Longobard nobleman, advisor to Grimoaldos and secret friend of Bertaridos (old)
  • Garibaldo, Duke of Turin, opponent Bertaridos and friend Grimoaldos ( bass )
  • Flavio , Rodelinda's and Bertarido's son (silent role)

Rodelinda ( HWV 19) is an opera ( Dramma per musica ) in three acts by Georg Friedrich Händel . It was Handel's second contribution for the 1724/25 season of the Royal Academy of Music and the last of his three master operas, composed in close succession, after Giulio Cesare in Egitto and Tamerlano .

Emergence

Longobard gold leaf crosses , Bergamo Museum

In the mid-1720s, Handel was at the height of his mastery as an opera composer. He had his first experiences with the genre in his youth in Hamburg and Italy. Resident in London since 1711, his operatic activities then culminated in the establishment of a civil opera company, the Royal Academy of Music, in 1719, of which Handel was co-director. From now on he composed mostly two new operas per season with great continuity. Apart from the four first operas of the Hamburg period, his stage works are all written in Italian, most of which were sung by Italian singers in London. He had the tracking down and engagement of these singers declared a top priority and in May 1719 he went to his native Germany to put together the ensemble of the Opera Academy.

In addition to the quality of his singers, Handel had also put together an orchestra, which in addition to the best English musicians also had first-class instrumentalists from Germany and Italy in its ranks. In addition to the musical quality of the performances, Handel also owed a lot to the collaboration with the librettist Nicola Francesco Haym . Haym wrote at least seven opera texts for Handel and was ubiquitous in everyday theater as a poet and musician - he also composed and played the violoncello - when, for example, he served as stage manager at the performances . Furthermore, Handel was certainly spurred on to top performances by the equal work of a composer's rival in the Opera Academy, Giovanni Battista Bononcini . When Bononcini left London in connection with the failed Jacobite conspiracies in 1722, Handel accepted this even more important leadership role within the company as a new challenge that by no means led to complacency but rather to new creative self-confidence.

The result of these factors was now evident in the period of just twelve months from February 1724 to February 1725. During this time, the three operas mentioned, which are rightly counted among Handel's masterpieces in this field, were written. All three benefit from Haym's good libretti , which, thanks to his arrangements, allowed the plot to advance faster and increased the lyrical potential by shortening excessively long recitative passages of the respective templates. Giulio Cesare is as impressive, opulent and colorfully orchestrated as Tamerlano is dramaturgically groundbreaking . Rodelinda , however, has her strengths in her musical and dramatic expressiveness.

libretto

Like most of Handel's operas, Haym's libretto of Rodelinda is based on an older libretto: It comes from Antonio Salvi and was premiered in Florence in 1710 with music by Giacomo Antonio Perti . Salvi was known to be a great lover of French theater and had extensive experience in converting French-language plays into Italian opera libretti. This time he had Pierre Corneille's play Pertharite, roi des Lombards of 1652, published in 1653, on.

With almost every reworking of a play into an opera libretto, not only elements of the plot, but also subtleties and nuances are lost. It is all the more astonishing that Salvi's textbook is already clearly superior to the underlying tragedy of Corneille. It is u. a. therefore more effective because it includes dramatic incidents in the plot that Corneille only contains as a report, such as Bertarido's escape from dungeon or his murder of Garibaldo. It seems as if Salvi recognized greater dramatic potential in the processing of the historical material than Corneille did. In Diaconus' historical report, not only Perctarit (Bertarido), but also his wife and son remain in exile until after Grimuald's (Grimoaldos) death. At Corneille's, Rodelinde and her son, who was not mentioned by name (in the opera Flavio), did not even flee, but stayed in Milan and Pertharite returned there during Grimoald's lifetime. A dramatic conflict is preprogrammed when the usurper of the Lombard throne desires the wife of the predecessor he expelled. But while Pertharite's return to Milan in Corneille's five-act tragedy was placed in the fourth scene of the third act, i.e. in the middle of the play, Salvi settled her rather in the sixth scene of the first act, which resulted in Bertarido is present at the terrible events of the first act - albeit disguised and hidden. He reads his own epitaph, sees Rodelinda and his son Flavio mourn at his grave and has to listen to Rodelinda (apparently) accepting Grimoaldo's marriage proposal.

Salvis's change also has an effect in the second act, when Bertarido accuses his wife of being unfaithful and only learns much later that the acceptance of Grimoaldo's marriage proposal was only an appearance and that she was in truth always loyal to him. Bertarido's first words are in the 7th scene, when Unulfo brings the couple back together, to his wife, who may forgive him for his lack of trust in her. Rodelinda forgives him, but the scene is observed by Grimoaldo, who does not recognize Bertarido, misinterprets the loving embrace and now confronts Rodelinda with allegations of infidelity and indecency. Rodelinda had given her consent to marry Grimoaldo, if only apparently. The corresponding section in Corneille's play, on the other hand, is dramatic: when Rodelinde is about to agree to marry the tyrant, Unulphe announces the return of Pertharite. This appears immediately, even before Grimoaldo leaves the stage. This small change in Salvis proves to be decisive for the effect of this scene and the dramatic entanglements it now contains: on the one hand, Bertarido's mistake regarding his wife's infidelity and his subsequent knowledge and remorse, on the other, Rodelinda's longing expectation of his return and, as he appears, the brief moment of loneliness of the lovers, as well as Grimoaldo's horror at Rodelinda's embrace with the "stranger" and his raw penetration, with which he destroys the peaceful, conciliatory mood.

Even before Nicola Haym took up the libretto, the decisive changes had been made. Haym only deleted the figure of Unoldo, whose name was too similar to Unulfos, and distributed his dramaturgically important contributions to Unulfo and Eduige. One requirement that was evidently inevitable when revising an Italian libretto for the London stage concerns the significant reduction in recitative passages. Haym cut it by more than half, also by completely cutting eight scenes. Of the 34 arias in Salvis, we still find 21 in Handel's score. Seven aria texts and a whole scene were rewritten by Haym. These changes also shifted the weighting of the people: While Rodelinda and Bertarido won, the importance of the secondary characters Eduige, Garibaldo and Unulfo decreased. Although Haym's abbreviations were mostly clever, a number of vague allusions remained, the meaning of which can only be understood if one is familiar with the earlier versions. But in at least one place the shortening of a recitative was also more dramaturgically effective: In the sixth scene of the first act, in the cemetery, Unulfo tells his secret friend Bertarido that Grimoaldo had turned away from his bride Eduige. While Unulfo can explain his reasons in detail in Salvis' version, namely that he now loves Rodelinda and that the news of Bertarido's death has now prompted him to offer Rodelinda the marriage and the throne, Haym shortened this report so that Grimoaldo's intentions only still hinted at. And when Handel himself deleted the last remaining reference to it, Bertarido initially remains completely clueless in this scene and learns that Grimoaldo is targeting his wife Rodelinda, not through his friend, but hears it later (in the eighth scene) in secret only himself, when Garibaldo extorted Rodelinda's consent to marry Grimoaldo, which completely shocked Bertarido.

As Giulio Cesare , Tamerlano and Rodelinda show , the three masterpieces from the mid-1720s, but also the operas based on Ariostus from the 1730s ( Orlando , Ariodante and Alcina ), good libretti inspired Handel extraordinarily. All six text templates have the decisive elements from which one can make an effective opera: a stable plot, dramatically exaggerated situations and convincing characters.

Handel probably began the composition at the end of 1724 after Tamerlano was performed for the first time on October 31 . On January 20, 1725, he completed the composition of Rodelinda , as can be seen from the date at the end of the autograph : “Fine dell Opera | li 20 di Genaro 1725. “The first performance took place on February 13, 1725 at the King's Theater in London's Haymarket (Heumarkt). The work had 14 performances this season, making it one of the most successful of the so-called first opera academy. It was resumed the following season and in 1731 for eight performances each time. Handel edited the score before the first performance, but without any external necessity, as was required before in Giulio Cesare and Tamerlano , because since he began working on the opera he had known all of his singers and there were no changes in singers until the premiere .

Cast of the premiere:

As Rodelinda, Queen in Lombardy , the opera first appeared on the program of the Hamburg Opera am Gänsemarkt on November 29, 1734 - there with German-language recitatives by Christoph Gottlieb Wend , who wrote a similar subject in 1729, Stefano Ghigi's libretto Flavio Bertarido, Re de ' Longobardi (Venice 1706, music: Carlo Francesco Pollarolo ), for Georg Philipp Telemann . Under Telemann's direction, this production was repeated four times until 1736. In a Hamburg newspaper of November 26, 1734, the premiere was reported as follows:

“Those lovers of musical theater are hereby informed for official news that next Monday, November 29th, a new opera, entitled Rodelinda, is to be performed for the first time on the local scene: It is from the composition of the famous Mr. Hendell and otherwise such an excellent piece of intrigues and the rest of the quality that they can rightly offer competition to even the most beautiful of people. "

- Hamburg Relations Couriers . Hamburg 1734.

In modern times, Rodelinda was first brought back to the public in German on June 26, 1920 at the newly founded Göttingen Handel Festival by the Handel enthusiast Oskar Hagen . It was the very first performance of a Handel opera in the twentieth century. Hagen's establishment was soon so successful that by the end of 1926 there had been 136 performances of the opera in this version throughout Germany. With well over a hundred new productions since then, Rodelinda is one of Handel's most popular operas today. The first performance of the piece in historical performance practice took place on June 23, 1988 at the Bruchsal Baroque Days with La Stagione Frankfurt under the direction of Michael Schneider .

action

Historical and literary background

Paulus Deacon, in an early medieval manuscript

The Lombards, as they were probably called because of their long beards, originally called themselves Winnilers and were an Elbe Germanic tribe that originally settled on the lower Elbe , today's Mecklenburg , in AD 166, at the beginning of the Marcomann Wars, as part of a raid for the first time invaded the Roman Empire . In the year 567 the Lombards destroyed the Gepid Empire after long battles together with the Avars . In the following year, most of the Lombards moved to Italy and conquered large parts of the peninsula under King Alboin . Together with other Germanic tribes, they pushed further south, but were unable to conquer all of Italy: About half of the country, mainly the south, remained under the control of Byzantium . The Lombard conquest of Italy is considered to be the last train of the late ancient migration and therefore a possible date for the end of antiquity and the beginning of the early Middle Ages in this area. With the Lombard invasion, the Apennine peninsula lost its political unity for 1300 years. The two hundred year rule of the Lombards over the north of Italy had profound and long-term consequences for the region's cultural identity.

Corneille takes up this story for his drama at the point when the Longobard Empire approached its greatest expansion after the middle of the 7th century. As his most important source, he named Antoine du Verdier's French translation of the Historia Langobardorum by Paulus Deacon . The historian describes how the Longobard king Aripert died in 661 after he had ruled for nine years and left the empire to his two sons Perctarit and Godepert. Godepert got Pavia, Perctarit got Milan. But soon a hostility developed between the brothers and Godepert sent Garipald, the Duke of Turin, to Grimoald, who was then ruling the Duchy of Benevento . He asked him to come to his aid against his brother Perctarit, and in return promised him his sister to be his wife. (In the source this is not mentioned by name. Corneille, Salvi and Haym call it Eduige or Edvige.) But Garipald committed treason and instead persuaded Grimoald to take over the kingdom of the Longobards himself. Grimoald liked the idea and went to Pavia. Garipald hurried ahead to report Godepert Grimoald's arrival and persuaded Godepert that Grimoald would only come to kill him. At the same time he persuaded Grimoald that Godepert wanted to kill him. During the conversation that took place the following day, Grimoald stabbed Godepert with his sword and subsequently brought control of Pavia into his power. Perctarit, Godeperts brother, who resided in Milan, fled when he heard the news of the death of his brother, and found shelter in the Khagan of the Avars . He left his wife Rodelinda and young son Cunincpert behind. Grimoald sent both of them into exile in Benevento. A dwarf formerly belonging to Godepert's court killed Garipald in St. John's Church in Turin.

Grimoald married Godepert's sister and informed the Khagan that there would be no peace between the Avars and the Lombards if he continued to support Perctarit. After Grimoald Perctarit had promised that he would not be in danger, he returned to Milan. But rumors spread that Perctarit could recapture the throne with the support of the people, and so Grimoald made plans to have him murdered. The attack on Perctarit's life was unsuccessful, however. He was able to escape with the help of a valet and his loyal friend Hunulf. When the flight and complicity of Hunulf and the valet were discovered, Grimoald revealed the noble side of his being. He praised the loyalty of the two helpers and allowed them to follow Perctarit into the land of the Franks. Grimoald ruled for nine years, from 662 to 671. The unprecedented expansion of the Longobard Empire fell during his reign. When Perctarit heard of Grimoald's death, he returned to Milan by the quickest route and took his place on the throne of Pavia again. Immediately he also called his wife Rodelinda and his son Cunincpert back from exile, who set a monument for themselves with the construction of a Basikila in the Lombard capital Pavia:

“Regina vero eius Rodelinda basilicam sanctae Dei genitricis extra muros eiusdem civitatis Ticinensis, quae Ad Perticas appellatur, opere mirabili condidit ornamentisque mirificis decoravit.”

"So his Queen Rodelinda built a church for the Holy Mother of God with wonderful craftsmanship in front of the city of Ticinum and decorated it with splendid decorations."

- Paulus Deacon : Historia Langobardorum. Monte Cassino , around 788.

The historical events after the death of Aripert I described by Salvi in ​​the original "Argomento", the preliminary remark to the libretto, largely agree with the account of Paulus Deacon, the rest of which is, as he writes, "pure fiction". Diaconus' literary activity is already part of a longer literary tradition, which embellishes the actual historical events in order to create in the reader a stronger feeling of participation in the historical figures. In his account of the events dealt with in Rodelinda , the opera's minor characters already appear, such as Perctarit's loyal friend Hunulf or the treacherous Garipald. The female figures are treated more sparsely, and Eduige is not even mentioned by name. Pierre Corneille had already considerably expanded these women's roles, shortened the chronological sequence of the events described compared to history, introduced Perctarit's capture and liberation and had Garipald killed not just by a dwarf, but by Bertarido.

prehistory

Upon his death, the King of the Lombards divided his kingdom between his two sons. The brothers start a war for their inheritance. Gundeberto (King of Pavia) receives support from his sister Eduige and Grimoaldo, to whom Eduige has been promised as a reward for his help. Gundeberto is killed under circumstances suggestive of treason, and Grimoaldo usurps both thrones. Bertarido (former King of Milan) flees to Hungary, leaving his wife Rodelina and son Flavio behind, and persuades the King of Hungary to confirm his death in a letter to Grimoaldo. The usurper has meanwhile fallen in love with Bertarido's "widow".

first act

Rodelinda's room . (Scene 1) Rodelinda mourns the loss of her beloved husband. Grimoaldo offers to bring her back to the throne as his wife. She rejects his offer indignantly. (2) Duke Garibaldo, Grimoaldo's ally, offers his master to deal with Rodelinda's intransigence. (3) Eduige joins them and accuses Grimoaldo of having been proud and aloof since he ascended the throne. Grimoaldo tells her that he does not want to marry her anymore, because she constantly refused him before, when he had no power. (4) Eduige accuses Garibaldo, who claims to love her, to be responsible for Grimoaldo's rejection. (5) Left alone, Garibaldo reveals that he only wants Eduige because of her crown, because while Flavio is still a minor, she is the rightful regent of Milan and Pavia.

Cypress forest with the tombs of the Lombard kings . (6) Bertarido in disguise laments his fate in front of his own tomb, especially the separation from his beloved wife. His former chancellor, Unulfo, renews his pledge of loyalty and friendship to Bertarido. Bertarido is horrified that Rodelinda and his son think he is dead and immediately wants to rush to them when they both enter the cemetery. Unulfo can only stop him with difficulty. The two men hide (7) and listen while Rodelinda mourns at the tomb. (8) Garibaldo finds Rodelinda and tells her to marry Grimoaldo and take back the throne rather than shedding stupid, superfluous tears here at the grave. When Rodelinda refuses again, Garibaldo threatens to kill Flavio if she does not comply. Rodelinda has to give her consent, but announces Garibaldo's execution as her first royal order. (9) Garibaldo informs Grimaldo of Rodelinda's consent, which makes him very happy. He also reports the threat of death to his master. Grimoaldo assures him of his protection in this regard. (10) Bertarido thinks his wife is weak and falls back into self-pity. Unulfo goes to find some evidence of Rodelinda's loyalty. (11) Bertarido decides to stay in disguise to test his wife.

Second act

Hall in the palace . (1) Garibaldo again submits his marriage offer to Eduige, which she finally accepts. (2) Rodelinda tells her sister-in-law that she has given her consent to marry Grimoaldo. Eduige vows to take revenge on him. (3) Unulfo and Garibaldo are present during Rodelinda's and Grimoaldo's encounter, during which she accepts Grimoaldo's marriage offer. She asks him to grant her a wish. He anticipates her by agreeing to grant her every wish, except for Garibaldo's execution. She replies that in that case he should take her son and kill him. Because she cannot be the mother of the rightful heir and wife of his worst enemy at the same time. (4) Grimoaldo confesses to Unulfo and Garibaldo that he loves Rodelinda even more because of her relentless loyalty, and then leaves the room. To Unulfo's horror, Garibaldo is of the opinion that his master should take Rodelinda's bluff literally and kill the child, because sooner or later she will give in. Garibaldo explains that a stolen kingdom can only be kept with terror and cruelty, not compassion and mercy. Left alone, Unulfo encourages himself to donate consolation to Bertarido.

A lovely place . (5) Bertarido laments his fate, Eduige recognizes his voice. Bertarido explains to her that he is playing dead to protect his wife and child. Unulfo arrives and is horrified that Bertarido's identity has been revealed. But Unulfo has good news and tells Bertarido of Rodelinda's loyalty and advises him to show himself to his beloved wife.

Gallery in Rodelinda's room . (6) Unulfo comes to Rodelinda and reveals to her that Bertarido is still alive. (7) Rodelinda and Bertarido are reunited and he asks her forgiveness for causing her such distress. Grimoaldo witnesses their meeting and hastily concludes that Rodelinda is having an affair. He is angry and accuses her of lewdness. To defend Rodelinda's honor, Bertarido reveals his true identity, which Rodelinda denies to protect his life. Grimoaldo has him arrested because he is definitely a rival. Before Bertarido is led away, he and Rodelinda say goodbye to each other.

Third act

Gallery in the palace . (1) Unulfo wants to save Bertarido's life. Eduige gives Unulfo the key to a secret passage that connects the dungeon with the garden. (2) Grimoaldo cannot choose to kill Rodelinda's lover and does not want to believe that it is Bertarido. Garibaldo replies that he will never find peace unless he does just that.

A dark dungeon . (3) Bertarido languishes in prison. An unseen hand throws him a weapon from the darkness. He takes courage. He hears someone enter. He attacks this person and accidentally injures Unulfo, who has come to put the escape plan into practice. Despite his injury, Unulfo primarily wants to get Bertarido to safety. You hear people arrive and flee in a hurry. (4) Unfortunately the newcomers are Eduige, Rodelinda, and Flavio. They discover Bertarido's bloodstained clothes and fear the worst.

Royal garden . (5) Once in the garden, Unulfo leaves Bertarido to look for Eduige, Rodelinda and Flavio. Bertarido is hiding. (6) Grimoaldo comes into the garden, haunted by jealousy, anger, love and remorse and unable to find peace, finally he manages to fall asleep. (7) Garibaldo approaches the sleeping king and steals his sword. When Grimoaldo wakes up, Garibaldo tries to kill him. (8) But Bertarido is faster, attacks Garibaldo, strikes him down and thus saves Grimoaldo's life. Rodelinda and Flavio rush up, as do soldiers. Bertarido gives Grimoaldo his weapon back. (9) After Grimoaldo heard of Unulfos and Eduige's involvement in Bertarido's escape, Grimoaldo forgives them all, because after all they belong to his savior's “entourage” and it would be more than ungrateful to kill them. Grimoaldo then takes Eduige to his wife and with her the throne of Pavia, while he returns that of Milan to his rightful ruler Bertarido. In the end Rodelinda, Bertarido and Flavio are reunited.

analysis

Plot structure

Like the typical opera seria , the Rodelinda opera is structured as a classic three-act act and is thus divided into exposition, involvement and solution. In the narrated time, the plot extends over a relatively short period of time (one or only a few days) with gaps between the acts that last no more than a few hours. The plot is linear and there are no flashbacks. If the time before the beginning of the plot has an influence on the events, they will be mentioned in the course of the play. The most important centers of tension within the work, viewed in isolation from the plot, are:

Rodelinda, Grimoaldo and Bertarido: This love triangle is the conflict that drives the action. Grimoaldo woos Rodelinda and offers her the crown, while Rodelinda is still loyal to her supposedly deceased husband. The conflict becomes more complex when Rodelinda realizes that Bertarido is not dead and she has to choose between her own happiness (i.e., a relationship with Bertarido) or the safety of her husband. The conflict only resolves at the end of the piece, when both conditions are met: Bertarido gets the throne back and is therefore safe, which is why Rodelinda and Bertarido can return to each other.

Grimoaldo: He is the most interesting character in the opera, whom the English Handel researcher Winton Dean aptly characterized as "sheep in wolf's clothing". If he outwardly has no scruples about abandoning his bride Eduige and approaching a fresh (supposed) widow, throwing the king who had been overthrown into prison and threatening him with death, he still suffers from all this torment of conscience. When Rodelinda agrees to marry him on the condition that he must kill her son Flavio, she saw through him completely: she knows very well that he is incapable of committing this crime, no matter how much Garibaldo may urge him to do so .

Bertarido's secret: this conflict takes place inside Bertarido. It is the struggle between his own safety and the desire to tell his wife that he is not dead and that she therefore does not have to marry Grimoaldo. Unulfo also plays a role in this conflict as he tries to prevent Bertarido from sharing his secret with Rodelinda. This conflict is resolved in the second act when Bertarido reveals himself to Rodelinda.

Garibaldo: Garibaldo, as a traitor, provokes a number of conflicts. It is he who advises Grimoaldo to kill Bertarido in order to find peace, and in the third act he tries unsuccessfully to murder his king himself. He is the "real bad guy" of the piece, wherever he appears, things get uncomfortable. The conflicts end with his death (the only death in the whole play), after which the whole plot dissolves and turns for the better.

Relations of power and domination

All actors belong to the Lombard upper class or at least to the Lombard royal court. The balance of power among them is therefore not primarily derived from their social position, but from their personal actions. Bertarido , who as the legitimate king of Milan would be at the top of the list, has fled into exile and takes on a completely passive role until he ultimately saves the usurper from murder and, together with his wife Rodelinda, takes his place at the top of society again . Grimoaldo , who as usurper has usurped both thrones, is now at the top of the social order, at least from the outside, but his decisions are influenced by Garibaldo, which means that there is a certain dependency, which in turn gives Garibaldo power. Also Rodelinda has power over Grimoaldo by rejecting the love usurper and can get them by their rules to "play". Eduige has a high position at court as a princess, but she has little influence and can only implement her goals with the help of others. Unulfo and Flavio hardly play a role in the prevailing balance of power.

In summary, one can say that during the time of Bertarido's absence, power is divided between Grimoaldo, Garibaldo and Rodelinda and that they are in a kind of "triangular relationship"; this although Garibaldo is actually under Grimoaldo in the social order and Rodelinda is indeed the legitimate queen, but at the same time a woman and without a man is excluded from power.

Comparison of opera plot - source

The biggest difference between opera and source is probably the choice of the main character. In the source, Rodelinda is exiled with Cunincpert, in the opera she stays in Milan with Flavio and becomes the central figure in the play. With regard to Bertarido, the source mentions nothing of a false death report, but it does report an attempted murder by Grimoald on Perctarit, which was probably included in the opera in Grimoaldo's deliberations on whether or not to kill Bertarido. With Hunulf's help, Perctarit is able to flee Milan, Bertarido escapes the dungeon thanks to Unulfo. Perctarit can return to the throne after Grimoald's death, while Bertarido saves Grimoaldo's life and so its good core comes to light: He steps aside and lets Bertarido return.

As for Grimoaldo, his wish to marry Rodelinda is fictional, his marriage to Eduige corresponds to the statement in the source that Grimoald married Perctarit's sister. Like Garipald, Garibaldo is the driving force behind Grimoaldos / Grimoald's usurpation. His motifs remain in the dark both in the opera and in the source. His death was invented by Bertarido's sword. Unulfo has come to terms with the new king, but is loyal in his heart to the true and rightful Lord Bertarido. The source reports about Hunulf that he was Perctarit's friend and that he helped him escape, which saved his life. Unulfo also provides this help, albeit in a slightly different situation.

The opera audience is left in the dark about the details of Grimoaldo's rise to power. At the end of the second act, however, Eduige implies that she was involved (“the crime I committed out of lust for power”). However, nothing of this is mentioned in the source. Just like Flavio, Cunincpert is not a protagonist, but only appears as an accompaniment to his mother and a rather abstract heir to the throne.

music

Overture, printed as a piano reduction by John Walsh , London 1760

The many advantages of the libretto spurred Handel to a composition of great diversity and originality, which in turn increased the realism and credibility of the dramatic situations in the opera. The public's taste required a constant sequence of da capo arias in which the individual singers could demonstrate their vocal abilities, but Handel's ability to exploit this apparent limitation in favor of expressivity and drama apparently knew no bounds. This is Rodelinda probably one of the best examples.

Handel characterized both villains very clearly, but they clearly stand out from each other. Garibaldo is an incorrigible cynic and an unreflective villain. His two arias, Di Cupido impiego i vani (No. 5) and Tirannia gli diede il regno (No. 18) represent outbursts of gloomy rudeness, full of sinister bravura, with numerous unison passages, little harmony, there are no instrumental middle voices , and large interval jumps. Its superficial nature is clearly shown in this way. Grimoaldo, however, is a far more complex figure, a mentally disturbed tyrant who is tormented by remorse. His first two arias, Io già t'amai (No. 3) and Se per te giungo a godere (No. 11) let him appear as a self-confident ruler, they are in major. But when it turns out in the second act that Bertarido is alive, his nerves run out and his music turns to the minor keys. His effervescence in Tuo drudo e mio rivale (No. 23) also has the effect, the deep painfulness of the farewell duet Io t'abbraccio (No. 24) by Rodelinda and Bertarido, which follows directly after a short recitative and concludes the second act to intensify. Grimoaldo's personality structure is shown most clearly in his solo scene (6th scene) in the third act: his Accompagnato recitative Fatto inferno è il mio petto (No. 32) runs through a confusing multitude of keys and is tonally just as disturbed as he is mentally disturbed . The music, torn apart and fissured at the beginning because the furies of jealousy, anger and love plague him and he suspects that his conscience will catch up with him, calms down and becomes arios when he withdraws from the conflicting feelings in himself and simply his calm wants to have: Ma pur voi lusingate , whereupon the weakened tyrant in the Siciliano Pastorello d'un povero armento (No. 33) enviously compares his lot with that of a carefree shepherd and sinks into self-pity. Now it is only a small step for him to the remorse and generosity of the final scene, which enables the opera's lieto fine . Along with that of Bajazet in Tamerlano, his role is one of the few great tenor roles in Handel's operas.

The music for Bertarido's first appearance is probably the best known in opera today. His Accompagnato Pompe vane di morte! (No. 6) and the aria is Dove? amato bene! (No. 7), English Art Thou Troubled? , have become a showpiece of today's countertenors in solo aria concerts and almost certainly part of their solo albums . But anyone who has heard this scene in the context of the opera knows that it loses much of its grandeur and expressiveness if you take it out of context. For the apparently effortless but magical transition from the accompanied recitative - in which he has to read the inscription on his own tomb, which serves more to boast about the winner Grimoaldo than to commemorate the (apparently) dead Bertarido - to the actual aria, Handel needed four attempts, In order to finally be satisfied with it: Salvi had not intended Bertarido to have an aria at this point, and so was Handel's first implementation of this scene: after the accompaniment, it immediately continued with the secco recitative, in which he turned to Unulfo. In his second version, he revised the last bars of the Accompagnato, ending it with a haunting cadence and pause, and added Dove was? as a normal aria with an eight-bar prelude. It is in this form that his director's score has been copied. Presumably when the piece was resumed in December 1725, Handel created the direct connection between recitative and aria: he wrote the word Dove over the existing pause at the end of the recitative , followed by the accidentals of the new key of E major, the time signature 3/8 and the second word is sung in three bar before the aria prelude. And finally he shortened the aria prelude again by four bars. In this form, in which the aria suddenly begins without the recitative having ended, Friedrich Chrysanders also adopted this scene in his score for the first edition (1876). But it is noteworthy that this final form was not taken into account in any contemporary source, with the exception of the Hamburg score of 1734: All prints and manuscripts give the eight-bar prelude and mostly without the accompanying words was Dove? again. The Arioso Chi di voi fu più infedele (No. 28) in conjunction with the accompanying recitative Ma non che so dal remoto balcon (No. 29) is probably Handel's most successful dungeon scene in his operas, in which the bleak, unsteady figures of every turn of the Events and follow Bertarido’s feelings. The transition between the two numbers is a harmonious highlight: when Eduige passes him a sword and his despair turns into hope, the B minor of Ariosos changes to the clear C major. For the music historian and contemporary Charles Burney , this was it

"[...] one of the finest pathetic airs that can be found in all his works [...] This air is rendered affecting by new and curious modulation, as well as by the general cast of the melody."

"[...] one of the most splendid pathetic arias that can be found in his complete works [...] The aria is made moving through a new and peculiar modulation, as well as the general shape of the melody."

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

However, Handel reserves the greatest variety of expression for the heroine herself. The music underlines Rodelinda's extraordinary moral and dramatic format, from the depths of deepest sadness to the outbursts of the greatest anger: In Morrai sì, l'empia tua testa si (No. 10), a canon of abuse against Garibaldo, the abundance of musical ideas alone leaves behind , which consists of six different motifs, all of which are already linked in the foreplay, conclude that she is more than up to her tormentors. Handel, however, is concerned with much more than the mere representation of a wide range of expressions. Rather, his music draws the characters from the beginning and refines their more or less diverse personality structures, which can be seen particularly well in Rodelinda's first scene: Handel originally had the aria Ho perduto il caro sposo (No. 1) as a conventional da-capo -Arie , but before the first performance he deleted the middle section, which of course also meant that the repetition of the A section had to be omitted, and thus, despite the recitative in between, constituted a compelling dramatic move to the Allegro aria L'empio rigor del fato (No. 2), which then releases a lot of the tension that the first aria had built up. The audience experiences Rodelinda as a relaxed and determined woman. In her rather bitter second dirge, Ombre, piante, urn funeste! (No. 8), the short, hopeless two-syllable motifs are followed by a dense musical phrase when she sings of the joys in her breast ( del delizie del mio sen ). This multi-layered approach to musical characterization is found in Rodelinda's last aria, Mio caro bene! Caro! (No. 34) its longed-for dissolution, when the relief not only breaks through with Rodelinda, but also with the audience. This effect is all the greater because everyone experienced the emotional ups and downs they had to go through during the drama.

Success & Criticism

After the Scottish tenor Alexander Gordon , who had already sung twice in Handel's productions in Radamisto and Flavio, attended a performance by Giulio Cesare and a rehearsal by Rodelinda , he wrote to Sir John Clerk von Penicuik on February 12 :

"Having the liberty of the house I went to the opera house & heard Julius Caesar which pleasd me exceedingly but the new one to be acted for ye first time next Saturday exceeds all I ever heard."

"At the invitation of the house, I went to the opera and heard Julius Caesar, who I really liked, but the new opera, which will premiere next Saturday, is beyond anything I have ever heard."

- Alexander Gordon : letter to Sir John Clerk of Penicuik. London 1725.

An unknown Italian attended the performance on March 30th. He praises Senesino and the Cuzzoni and mentions the presence of King George I , but does not comment on the music:

«Adi 31 Marzo siamo stati all'opera in musica Italiana composta di 6 Personaggi. Cioè Senesino, Paccini, Borosini, Boschi, Cuzzoni, e Dotti. Li più piacciuti è con tutta giustizia veramente sono Senesino, e La Cuzzoni. Il Teatro è particolare, mentre vi sono pochi palchi cioè proscenij, e degl'altri alli fianchi; in faccia vi sono tre gran Loggie, capaci di moltissime Persone, e la Platea ancora per esser a 'guisa d'Anfiteatro, e da'pertutto stanno huomini e donne mescolati assieme; nel Palco a 'mano sinistra vicino al Proscenio vi và il Re che è un Signor benigno d'Aria dolce e allegro, haveva un abito scuro ricamato d'oro. "

“On March 31st we went to the Italian Opera, in which 6 actors appeared, namely Senesino, Paccini, Borosini, Boschi, Cuzzoni and Dotti. Senesino and the Cuzzoni were rightly liked the best. The theater is unusual: while there are only a few stage boxes and others along the sides, there are three large galleries across from them that can accommodate a large number of people. The parquet is also in the shape of an amphitheater and men and women are mixed up everywhere. The king, a kind man with a pleasant and cheerful demeanor, sat in the box on the left near the proscenium . He wore dark clothes decorated with gold embroidery. "

- An Italian : Diary of a trip to Europe in the period 1724/25.

Horace Walpole's famous description of the Cuzzoni as Rodelinda is given by Burney:

“[...] she was short and squat, with a doughy cross face, but fine complexion; was not a good actress; dressed ill; and was silly and fantastical. And yet on her appearing in this opera, in a brown silk gown, trimmed with silver, with the vulgarity and indecorum of which all the old ladies were much scandalized, the young adopted it as a fashion, so universally, that it seemed a national uniform for youth and beauty. "

"[...] she was small, stocky, with a doughy, sullen face, but a fine complexion; was not a good actress; inappropriately dressed, silly and whimsical. And when she appeared in this opera in a brown, silver-embroidered silk dress that was so vulgar and unseemly that all the older women were indignant about it, the young immediately adopted it as fashion, and so generally that it was almost a national costume of youth and beauty could count. "

- Horace Walpole : A General History of Music (Burney), London 1789.

Charles Burney judges Rodelinda as an opera

"[...] which contains such a number of capital and pleasing airs, as entitles it to one of the first places among Handel's dramatic productions."

"[...] which contains a considerable number of excellent and pleasing arias that it occupies one of the foremost places in Handel's dramatic works."

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

orchestra

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

Discography (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Rodelinda  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Historia Langobardorum  - Sources and full texts (Latin)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Mark Audus: Handel. Rodelinda. Translated from the English by Anne Steeb and Bernd Müller. Virgin Veritas 5452772, London 1998, p. 18 ff.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Andrew V. Jones: Commerce. Rodelinda. From the English by Reinhard Lüthje. DG 477 5391, Hamburg 2005, p. 26 ff.
  3. ^ A b Andrew V. Jones: Rodelinda. Preface to the Halle Handel edition, Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 2002, ISMN 979-0-0064-9569-6, pp. VII – XII.
  4. ^ 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. 250.
  5. ↑ Ulrich Etscheit: Handel's “Rodelinda”: ​​libretto, composition, reception. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 1998, ISBN 978-3-7618-1404-8 , p. 229.
  6. ↑ Paulus Deacon: Historia gentis Langobardorum. In: Ludwig Bethmann and Georg Waitz (eds.): Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI-IX. Hahn-Verlag, Hanover 1878, 4th book, 51st chapter.
  7. ↑ [1]
  8. ↑ Paulus Deacon: Historia Langobardorum. In: Ludwig Bethmann and Georg Waitz (eds.): Monumenta Germaniae Historica , Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI-IX. Hahn-Verlag, Hanover 1878, 5th book, 1st chapter.
  9. ↑ Paulus Deacon: Historia Langobardorum. In: Ludwig Bethmann and Georg Waitz (eds.): Monumenta Germaniae Historica , Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI-IX. Hahn-Verlag, Hanover 1878, 5th book, 2nd chapter.
  10. ↑ [2]
  11. ↑ Paulus Deacon: Historia Langobardorum. In: Ludwig Bethmann and Georg Waitz (eds.): Monumenta Germaniae Historica , Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI-IX. Hahn-Verlag, Hanover 1878, 5th book, 33rd chapter.
  12. ↑ [3]
  13. ↑ Historia Langobardorum, 5/34
  14. ↑ Paulus Deacon: Historia Langobardorum. In: Ludwig Bethmann and Georg Waitz (eds.): Monumenta Germaniae Historica , Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI-IX. Hahn-Verlag, Hanover 1878, 5th book, 34th chapter.
  15. ^ Winton Dean , John Merrill Knapp : Handel's Operas 1704–1726. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-525-7 , p. 584.
  16. ^ 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. 301.
  17. ^ A b Elizabeth Gibson: The Royal Academy of Music, 1719–1728: The Institution and Its Directors. New York and London 1989, p. 215 f.
  18. ^ 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. 299.
  19. ^ 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. 302.