Radamisto (Handel)
Encyclopedia
Radamisto is an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in three acts by George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

 to an Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Nicola Francesco Haym
Nicola Francesco Haym
Nicola Francesco Haym was an Italian opera librettist, composer, theatre manager and performer, and numismatist. He is best remembered for adapting texts into libretti for the London operas of George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Bononcini...

, based on L'amor tirannico, o Zenobia by Domenico Lalli and Zenobia by Matteo Noris. It was Handel's first opera for the Royal Academy of Music.

Performance history

It was first performed at the King's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on 27 April 1720 and was judged to be a success, resulting in 10 further performances. A revised version with different singers was written for a revival on 28 December 1720. More revisions followed for yet another version presented in 1721 and again for further revival in 1728. It was also given in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

. The first modern performance was in Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

 on 27 June 1927.

The first production in the US, in a semi-staged version, took place on 16 February 1980 in Washington, DC and the first fully staged presentation was given at Mannes College, New York on 10 January 1992. Productions are fairly rare in modern times. They include the Handel Festival Göttingen production of 1993 given in Zurich and conducted by Nicholas McGegan
Nicholas McGegan
Nicholas McGegan OBE is a British harpsichordist, flautist, conductor and early music expert....

 which was later recorded by Harmonia Mundi; Opera McGill in Montreal presented the 1720 revision in May 2006; and the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...

 presented it with counter tenor David Daniels as part of its 2008 season.

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast,
27 April 1720
Revised version
Premiere Cast,
28 December 1720
Revised version
Premiere Cast,
1728
Radamisto,
son of Farasmane
soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 /
alto
Alto
Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" in Italian, that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence,...

 castrato
Castrato
A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.Castration before puberty prevents a boy's...

Margherita
Margherita Durastanti
Margherita Durastanti was an Italian singer of the 18th century. Vocally, she is best described as a soprano, though later in her career her tessitura descended to that of a mezzo-soprano. First heard of professionally in Mantua in 1700-01, she later appeared in Bologna and Reggio Emilia , Milan...

 
Durastanti
Margherita Durastanti
Margherita Durastanti was an Italian singer of the 18th century. Vocally, she is best described as a soprano, though later in her career her tessitura descended to that of a mezzo-soprano. First heard of professionally in Mantua in 1700-01, she later appeared in Bologna and Reggio Emilia , Milan...

Senesino
Senesino
Senesino was a celebrated Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel.-Early life and career:...

Senesino
Senesino
Senesino was a celebrated Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel.-Early life and career:...

Zenobia,
his wife
alto / soprano /
mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

Anastasia
Anastasia Robinson
Anastasia Robinson was an English soprano, later contralto, of the Baroque era. She is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang.-Early life and initial career:...


Robinson
Anastasia Robinson
Anastasia Robinson was an English soprano, later contralto, of the Baroque era. She is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang.-Early life and initial career:...

Margherita
Durastanti
Faustina Bordoni
Faustina Bordoni
Faustina Bordoni was an Italian mezzo-soprano.-Early career:She was born in Venice and brought up under the protection of the aristocratic brother composers Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello. Her singing teacher was another composer, Michelangelo Gasparini...

Tiridate,
King of Armenia
tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 / bass
Alexander
Gordon
Giuseppe Maria
Giuseppe Maria Boschi
Giuseppe Maria Boschi was an Italian bass singer - though in modern terms a baritone - of the 18th century. He is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, whom he worked for in both Italy and London.During the first decade of the century he is known to have...


Boschi
Giuseppe Maria Boschi
Giuseppe Maria Boschi was an Italian bass singer - though in modern terms a baritone - of the 18th century. He is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, whom he worked for in both Italy and London.During the first decade of the century he is known to have...

Giuseppe Maria
Boschi
Polissena, his wife,
daughter of Farasmane
soprano Ann Turner
Ann Turner Robinson
Ann Turner Robinson was an English soprano of the 18th century. She was the youngest daughter of William Turner, a composer and countertenor who was a contemporary of Henry Purcell, and is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang.Her...

 
Robinson
Ann Turner Robinson
Ann Turner Robinson was an English soprano of the 18th century. She was the youngest daughter of William Turner, a composer and countertenor who was a contemporary of Henry Purcell, and is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang.Her...

Maddalena Salvai Francesca Cuzzoni
Francesca Cuzzoni
Francesca Cuzzoni was an Italian operatic soprano of the Baroque era.-Early career:Cuzzoni was born in Parma. Her father, Angelo, was a professional violinist, and her singing teacher was Francesco Lanzi. She made her debut in her home city in 1714, singing in La virtù coronata, o Il Fernando by...

Farasmane,
King of Thrace
bass Lagarde Lagarde Giovanni Battista
Palmerini
Tigrane,
Prince of Pontus
soprano /
soprano castrato /
alto castrato
Caterina
Galerati
Matteo Berselli Antonio Baldi
Fraarte,
brother of Tiridate
soprano castrato /
soprano
Benedetto
Baldassari
Caterina
Galerati
(role cut)

Synopsis

Place: Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

Time: 53 A.D.


The opera has set numbers with recitative
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...

. It is based on Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

's Annals of Imperial Rome
Annals (Tacitus)
The Annals by Tacitus is a history of the reigns of the four Roman Emperors succeeding Caesar Augustus. The surviving parts of the Annals extensively cover most of the reigns of Tiberius and Nero. The title Annals was probably not given by Tacitus, but derives from the fact that he treated this...

.

"The happily married Radamisto and Zenobia are besieged by Tiridate, ruler of a neighboring country. Radamisto through an invasion of Tiridate has launched and Zenobia through Tiridate's attempt to capture her during the warfare. Despite his marriage to the faithful Polissena, Tiridate has fallen passionately in love with Zenobia and his attempts to secure and seduce her are the forces that drive the story. The "tyrannical love" which consumes Tiridate eventually gives way and he is reunited with Polissena, while Radamisto and Zenobia celebrate the "sweet refuse" they find in each other's arms."

The score

Score of Radamisto (ed. Friedrich Chrysander
Friedrich Chrysander
Karl Franz Friedrich Chrysander was a German music historian and critic, whose edition of the works of George Frideric Handel and authoritative writings on many other composers established him as a pioneer of 19th-century musicology.Born at Lübtheen, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Chrysander was the son...

, Leipzig 1875)
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